270 BACTERIA IN OTHER FOODS 



other than muscular, and when present set up during life the 

 bacterial diseases of animals, or after death putrefactive changes. 

 It is for these conditions that meat is "seized" under the Public 

 Health Acts as unfit for food of man. Such conditions may be 

 broadly divided into two kinds : — 



1. Specific Diseases in Meat, such as tuberculosis, anthrax, swine 

 fever, actinomycosis, milk fever, etc. 



2. Decompositions of Meat due to invasion by putrefactive 

 organisms after death. These conditions may be disposed of at 

 once by saying that they arise commonly as a result of keeping meat 

 too long under conditions likely to lead to putrefaction. Unclean 

 storage, insufficient preservation, summer weather, and similar 

 circumstances afford the opportunity for putrefactive organisms to 

 perform their function. The signs of decomposing meat do not require 

 explanation or elaboration. They are mainly three : — (a) Smell of 

 putrefaction; (&) discoloration; and (c) loss of elasticity of tissue 

 which becomes doughy, pits on pressure, or may even become slimy 

 or soapy. 



The chief specific diseases which occur in meat are dealt with 

 briefly in the section treating of the relation between bacteria and 

 disease. It will, therefore, be unnecessary to make more than a 

 passing reference in this place. 



TubeFCUlosis. — This disease is set up in animals by the tubercle 

 bacillus, which is either identical with or closely allied to the B. 

 tuberculosis of Koch. It may set up a generalised disease affecting 

 the body of the animal more or less completely, or it may set up 

 only a local disease. 



The Koyal Commission on Tuberculosis, in the report which they 

 made in 1898, referred to the degree of tubercular disease which 

 should cause a carcase, or part thereof, to be seized, and which may 

 be accepted broadly as indicative of general and local tuberculosis. 

 They stated as follows : — 



"We are of opinion that the following principles should be 

 observed in the inspection of tuberculous carcases of cattle : — 



(a) When there is miliary tuberculosis 

 of both lungs 



(5) When tuberculous lesions are present 

 on the pleura and peritoneum 



(tf) When tuberculous lesions are present 

 in the muscular system, or in the 

 lymphatic glands embedded in or 

 between the muscles 



{d) When tuberculous lesions exist in 

 any part of an emaciated carcase . ] 



G-eneralised tuber- 

 culosis is present, 

 and the entire 

 carcase and all 

 the organs may 

 be seized. 



