A practical guide to meat inspection / by Thomas Walley.

  • Walley, Thomas, 1842-1894.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical guide to meat inspection / by Thomas Walley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    such flesh, and it is largely consumed as braxy mutton ; but under no circumstances should it be allowed to pass as market- able food, nor, if the slightest evidence exists of its being from anthrax animals, or from those suffering from septicaemia, should there be any hesitation shown in condemning it as unwholesome and dangerous. Under circumstances similar to those described as leading to the production of malignant parturient fever, grave and universal changes often take place in the whole mass of blood and in the tissues generally of the sheep, the carcase being universally discoloured, and extravasation and effusion extensive; the body, too, undergoes rapid putrefaction. This is undoubtedly a form of septicaemia—the hcematozymosts of Simonds—and the flesh should be treated as such. Dysentery— Bloody Flux —is a specific inflammation of the large bowels, and is most frequently seen in cattle, sheep, and pigs, rarely in the horse. It is produced by the action of organic irritants, such as decomposing or diseased flesh and fish, in the pig; by contamination (especially by sewage) of pastures or of water, or by the excreta of diseased animals (fouling); by decomposing or fermenting vegetable matter, and by stagnant water. It is sometimes a symptom of a depraved condition of the blood. Dysentery is characterised by extreme fever, and by intestinal symptoms, with profuse diarrhoea at the outset followed rapidly by discharge of bloody foeces, and ultimately by blood. Emaciation proceeds at a very rapid pace. In some cases it merges into a chronic affection, the bowels becoming ulcerated, and the nutrition of the body being so much interfered with as to produce extreme emaciation and debility. On post-mortem examination the bowels present all the charac- teristics of an acute inflammation of the mucous membrane, and frequently the lesion is observed to extend throughout the whole length of the intestinal canal, and especially is