MUNICIPAL HYGIENE 679 



The chief object of this is to avoid the risk of meat 

 poisoning, which is due to the formation in the flesh of one 

 or more^ toxins unaffected by cooking, and capable, under 

 certain circumstances, especially in the case of pork, of giving 

 rise to the most alarming symptoms amongst consumers. 

 An outbreak of pneumonia at Middlesbrough in 1888 which 

 caused 490 deaths was attributed to American bacon, and 

 many smaller outbreaks of disease, due generally to pork, 

 have from time to time been reported. 



That the flesh of animals on the point of death, or even 

 dead of disease, has been eaten with impunity is quite 

 undoubted, but the idea is repulsive and is a state of affairs 

 which cannot for one moment be countenanced. If in 

 practice a client prefers to take the chance of his animal 

 recovering, rather than converting it into beef or mutton 

 while there is still time, no change of opinion at the 

 eleventh hour should receive any support or countenance 

 from the professional adviser, who should direct the knacker 

 and not the butcher to be called in. 



The Utilization and Destruction of Condemned Meat. 



In certain parts of Germany a system exists of utilizing 

 the meat of animals found after slaughter to be affected 

 with disease, the actual diseased parts being rejected. 



This opens up a profoundly economic question; the 

 attitude adopted by the State is that the public have a 

 right to elect whether they shall eat meat known to be of 

 inferior quality, owing to it having been derived from 

 diseased animals, while the State protects them from any 

 possible harm in the matter by cooking the meat before 

 sale. 



No meat unfit for human use and dangerous to health is 

 included in this method. 



'Freibank' meat, as it is called, has been known in 

 Germany for some centuries, but it is only in recent years, 

 since obligatory meat inspection has been introduced, that 

 the question has assumed important proportions. 



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