The cattle plague and diseased meat, in their relations with the public health, and with the interests of agriculture : a letter to the Rt. Hon. Sir George Grey ... / by Joseph Sampson Gamgee.

  • Gamgee, Sampson, 1828-1886.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cattle plague and diseased meat, in their relations with the public health, and with the interests of agriculture : a letter to the Rt. Hon. Sir George Grey ... / by Joseph Sampson Gamgee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    fcliey would be sold as food. In his opinion, those, carcases were not diseased, nor would they be con- sidered such • by • the . city meat inspectors. He even maintained that the lungs were not diseased; he said they oaly con-tained congealed healthy blood! On Sunday, the 23rd instant, at 5 p.m., I in^ spected the same slaughterhouse,;iiwhei'5e i several r9#Pi,;W(erfi;. busily at work. Twelve very fair recently-dressed carcases v^'ere hung up, two of sheep, ten of , oxen; additionally three diseased carcases, two of which were dressed but quite warm, a third was in process of trimmin(j. These three were very old, extraordinarily lean cows, destitute of the least particle of fat; the flesh was pale, nearly white, extensively ecchymosed, the cellular tissue inflated with gas; in the buttocks of the beast which was being trimmed were huge masses of putrid, bloody, and disintegrated muscle,—the whole appearances were those of ad- vanced typhoid disease. From two of these cows two calves, nearly at full period, had been removed ; they were now hung up, and would, from all I have seen in Newgate market, and personally learned, no doubt be sold in that market, or cut up for sausages. Firmly convinced that all this diseased meat was unfit for human food, I sought for some official all over the market, and in the clerk's office, but I could find none; consequently, to the desecration of the Sabbath was added the i)reparation of dis-