672 VETEEINAEY HYGIENE 



the muscular tissues are stained yellow, condemnation of 

 the carcase should follow. 



Exception is frequently taken to the carcases of animals 

 destroyed for milk-fever. There is no reason why, if 

 killed early in the disease, at a time when they can be 

 properly bled, and before they are saturated with medicine, 

 they should not be used ; the flesh is quite sound and good. 

 Later on it is quite another matter, if destroyed in extremis 

 the above objections exist, and the idea is repulsive. This 

 is a very frequent class of case, and if any bruising of the 

 brisket or hips exist with a badly-bled carcase, it is almost 

 positive the animal has been destroyed on the point of 

 death and the carcase should be rejected. 



Tuberculosis, as we shall see presently, is the most 

 common cause of meat being seized, and the preponderance 

 of dairy stock affected over every other class of bovine will 

 then be alluded to. The question which we have here to 

 consider is the important one of determining what amount 

 of tuberculosis may be present in a carcase, consistent with 

 the safety of the consumer. In other words, when should 

 a carcase affected with tuberculosis be accepted and when 

 rejected? 



The danger of infection from tuberculous meat has been 

 greatly exaggerated. The veterinary profession in the 

 person of McFadyean was the first in this country to point 

 out that total seizure of every tuberculous carcase was not 

 only unnecessary, but a waste of good food. This state- 

 ment had a steadying effect, for medical officers at certain 

 places had been rejecting everything with disastrous results, 

 so far as the owner of the meat was concerned, and defeat- 

 ing the aim and object of public abattoirs. It is possible 

 these medical officers were influenced by the decision of the 

 Congress for the study of Tuberculosis in Man and Animals, 

 held in Paris in 1888, which passed a resolution of total 

 condemnation of the carcase no matter how slight the 

 evidence of disease might be. 



It is entirely owing to the labours of the Koyal Commis- 

 sion, guided in these purely expert points by the opinion of 



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