Diseased meat sold in Edinburgh, and meat inspection in connection with the public health and with the interests of agriculture : a letter to the Right Hon. the Lord Provost of Edinburgh / by John Gamgee.

  • Gamgee, John, 1831-1894.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseased meat sold in Edinburgh, and meat inspection in connection with the public health and with the interests of agriculture : a letter to the Right Hon. the Lord Provost of Edinburgh / by John Gamgee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    1V.—UN WHOLESOME MEAT. ( From the Daily Scotsman for March 24, 1857.^ TO THE EDITOR OP THE SCOTSMAN. SlR,—Being in Edinburgh to make an unofficial in- quiry into tlie advantages and disadvantages of the famous Water Meadows, mv attention lias been called to the alleged nnhealthiness of the cows fed upon the grass growing upon them. It appears undoubted that the cows do suffer an un- usual amount of illness, but I incline to attribute that to other circumstances than peculiarity of food. The chief of these are overcrowding, defective ventilation, and excessive dirtiness—influences which are apt to be un- usually injurious to animals very highly fed in order to produce large supplies of milk. I noticed in a letter by Mr Gamgee, published in the Scotsman of February the 28th ult., that that gentleman estimates the loss of cows from sickness at about 30 per cent., which is not, I think, an over-estimate, enormous as it appears; for I find the dairymen are in the habit of killing off all their cows soon after they become dry, and I noticed that a large proportion—perhaps one in ten or twelve—of those which I saw were evidently suffering from disease. It is but fair to assume that the cows which do become diseased are first selected to send to the slaughter-house. That this is the case I have received confirmatory evidence. It is impossible, as