Handbook of meat inspection / by Robert Ostertag ; translated by E. Vernon Wilcox. With an introduction by John R. Mohler.

Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Handbook of meat inspection / by Robert Ostertag ; translated by E. Vernon Wilcox. With an introduction by John R. Mohler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    92/938 (page 48)
    From the standpoint of the tradesmen who see in the freibank an undesirable competition, many objections have been raised against the institution. One such objection is that meat inspectors are not in a position in all cases to give a proper decision concerning the marketable or non-marketable character of the meat. The answer to this objection is that which was given by- Bollinger to au opponent of the freibank. “Our abattoir veter- inarians have to answer almost daily the questions which you have pint to me. Experiments in the laboratory as well as experience in in practice have taught that abattoir veterinarians are very com- petent to determine what meat shall be considered ‘wholesome/ ‘inferior,’or ‘ dangerous to health.’” In consequence of the new regulation concerning the requirement of a guaranty in traffic with food animals which was brought about by public statutes for the German Empire and by imperial decree, it is pleasing to note, as appears from the proceedings of the Twenty-second Session of German Batchers, that an interest in the proper utilization of harmless but inferior meat has been awakened among the butchers. It has been a universal expei’ience that meat exposed upon the freibanks always finds a ready sale on account of the smaller price which is associated with the declaration.. No injustice is done any one by the introduction of the freibank, for every person is free to buy meat upon the freibank or not. “ Volenti non fit injuria.” In instituting a freibank, it is assumed that an underhanded traffic with non-marketable meat will be prevented. In ordinances with reference to this point, provision is to be made to permit the sale of meat only in small quantities and exclusively to persons who are to eat it themselves and to exclude from patronizing the freibank all butchers, sausage makers, hotel and restauraut keepers, as well as other middlemen. Au effective control of the traffic with freibank meat is possible, however, only in communities of nob too great an extent. In large cities in which this control is not possible, an institution similar to the freibank is to be provided in the place of the freibank, as, for example, in Berlin Here an attempt is made to eliminate the middleman and the dangers connected with his business under certain circumstances, by nob permitting unmarketable meat to be offered for sale except after cooking. The objections which were once raised by landowners, to the effect that agriculture might be injured by the institution of freibanks, are quite unfounded. On the contrary, it is on agri-