SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
691 
‘ Animals which have died before slaughter, or are killed at 
the point of death, the flesh of such instead of classing it as sus¬ 
piciously unwholesome, I would regard as positively un¬ 
wholesome and dangerous. As you are aware, there are in the 
bowels of live animals large numbers of bacteria and their germs, 
which are only prevented from gaining access to the system by 
the healthy resistance of the intestinal mucosa. When death 
I occurs, however, this resisting power is lost, and the bacteria 
j enter the body, rapidly multiply and spread, and generate pois¬ 
onous ptomaines. Several of these ptomaines have been isolated 
from flesh in a state of decomposition, and have proven to be of 
a very poisonous nature. It may serve the purpose only to 
mention one, viz., nervine, found in animal matters abandoned 
to putrefaction. “ Ten milligrammes has fatal effect on a cat. 
Forty milligrammes has fatal effect on a rabbit. It excites se- 
i cretions, increases salivation, accelerates the heart and respira- 
1 tions, contracts the pupils, causes staggering gait, the subject 
1 falls in collapse and dies in clonic convulsions with paralysis of 
j the heart.” The bacteria in the intestines are aerobic and 
anaerobic, and the ptomaines are oxygenic or non-oxygenic ac¬ 
cording as they are the product of an aerobic or anaerobic bac¬ 
terium. Animals which have been slaughtered, or are dead 
1 from some cause, which leaves the blood deficient in oxygen, 
I are suitable media for the propagation of the anaerobic species. 
The flesh of such animals is difficult to preserve, and packers of 
i meat know this from experience, for they are unwilling to place 
j it in their salting cellars. Such scrupulousness, however, is not 
I so freely exercised in the sausage factory. A liberal mixing 
! with spices soon disguises any trace there may be of decompo- 
i sition. Such meat produces a septic poisoning in the human 
i subject. Ante-mortem inspections we consider of great impor- 
' tance. It enables us to detect and separate animals already 
' manifesting disease, in order to insure a more careful post-mor- 
' tern examination. Such animals we arrange to have killed by 
themselves, and at a time when the inspector can devote some 
I extra time to the examination. 
If the post-mortem is conducted by another inspector he 
’ should be notified as to the cause of the ante-mortem condem¬ 
nation, and given such other information as would guide him 
materially in the examination, and enable him to arrive at an 
intelligent conclusion. 
This ante-mortem inspection, however, especially when it is 
conducted in stock yards, before animals change hands, is 
