American meat and its influence upon the public health / by Albert Leffingwell.

  • Leffingwell, Albert, 1845-1916.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: American meat and its influence upon the public health / by Albert Leffingwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    by the regulations of 1904 for animals killed at other than regular hours, when not only the thoracic viscera were left attached, but all other viscera were to be identifiable. We may be certain that Congress had in view no partial and incomplete inspection like this. To-day, animals slaughtered outside the packing-house without Government supervision may be brought to the producers of meat with bladder, stomach and intestines removed, and if then found satisfactory, the carcass may be transmuted into food-products, and stamped with the guarantee of the United States. Undoubtedly “ the farmer has been taken care of,” and the meat-packers as well. But was it quite fair to the consumer to decrease in any way the few existing safeguards established for the protection of the public health ? The tendency to favour a lax construction of the law is perceptible in other directions. Take lard, for example. To Great Britain alone we sell annually an average of over two hundred million pounds. Regard¬ ing animals the carcasses of which were brought into a lard-making or rendering establishment, the law was explicit: they could not be admitted unless a post¬ mortem inspection had been made under the usual formalities. In accordance with these provisions, the regulations of 1906 stated that “ animals that die in abattoir pens, and those in a dying condition before slaughter . . . in all cases shall be condemned. ... No dead animals shall be brought into an establishment for rendering, from outside the premises of said estab¬ lishment.” The necessity for this regulation is evident. It was intended to keep suspected carcasses away from