The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-20 00:00:00

How Our Meat Supply is Wasted•

Just now, when the price of butchers' meat is 3
question of such serious importance, attention may
e
very properly be directed to one most fruitful sour%
of disease among cattle ; we refer to the niode
which they are conveyed from one part of ,111,
country to another. As a simple question of
humanity the matter wants looking into, tail
its results are not less important in an econeinica
point of view. The rinderpest which frightened o
so much last year is, like the cholera among Illa.lll,
kind, far less destructive than other diseases Whle
are constantly prevalent. This fact is shown ver',
strikingly in an appendix to a report published IV
Mr. M'Call, Principal of the Glasgow Veterinary
College, on the structure and condition of the diaries
t
and cattle-sheds within the police bounds of
.01,
city. The appendix shows that the actual and dire
.73
loss in money value from rinderpest last year
Glasgow, when summed up, amounts to X,8,91as
10s. ; the amount realised from sale of carcases
W
£2,050 18s. 4cl. ; and the number of beasts returned 3r
having died and been buried was 416. On the ntbteo
hand, the loss from "puerperal fever" amounts
£7,021 Os., from pleuro-pueumonia £54,677, 3110
from murrain £7,314. Now the greatest loss frog
pleuro-pneumonia, lung disease, and, we maY 371e'
murrain, is among Irish and other travelled cat
and it is easy to see how this comes about. NOT A.,,
Irish cattle brought to this country ? We maY suet
pose a dealer has bought a number of lots in differ
places, which must reach a point for shipment at
s,
given time. The lots which arrive earliest maY re,
sibly gets rest and refreshment; but for thearhe
minder even water is out of the question. to
poor brutes are hurried from the railway trucks
the steamer, to be thrust into the hold as fast
13.
screwing of tails and thrashing can force °clot
Here, for 30 or 40 hours it may be, they are ke;t
huddled together without food or drink, and abll
ea
without air to breathe. On landing they arc dr:00
from the steamer, or very likely hauled out by nleajo
of ropes, and hurried off to another station, agoro
to be confined in trucks for a number a 11°00
longer. The next ordeal to be undergone bY Lao
wretched beasts is to be exhibited for sale at s,°,,eir
fair or market, when the same disregard of t"
d A
necessities is shown, and when at last they fin/
by
purchaser, as likely as not, another long innrlie)f,,re,
rail, to be made under the same conditions as be a
she
awaits them. The sufferings of the poor fa° „a
and starving animals are shocking to think clf):lit.
it requires no skill iu veterinary science to illacuit,
apparent that disease must be the inevitable r %be
As a matter of fact many beasts do perish el' it,
journey, or as soon as they reach the end o
CV
Those dying in transita, when the deaths art,oee,
deutly caused by the conditions of the convOrd` tpe
are raid for by the railway companies, auoluoi,
owner is thus saved from loss, but there is s° ,a.
of the actual food supply of the nation dest,r,°;?eil-
A lot of 24 bullocks forwarded by rail to \i-'ts
field, in I lampshire, were four days and Dig 1",1,,v0
the journey in trucks, without food and `eater.
„la,
oat of the 24 died on the way. A lot of, slit"A'A 01
lambs were sent also to Winchfield. 11“lirrie1,1
shipped from Glasgow on a T uesday, we" ~;.rivn"
Oil the Wednes lay about 7 p.m., and tpeY f`olijor-
at Winchfield station on the Friday by the
ing, about 8 p.m. Oae of these had dtc" 40100
way, and it is pretty c rtain that others Av.-1% 0,01
shared the same fate had not the OWLICI'S gIVLi (foss,
full 14 hours' rest near Glasgow on goo,c,,Tio,il
where they had also plenty of water—an e%,`-' rossii?l,°
piece of humanity. We say nothing of
.tb(-:116,1) which
consequences of eating the flesh of anin',_scriboi,'
have just heal subjected to the treatiaeat ouot have
Although symptoms of actual disease Inti.Y. 4011 c,:.11j
made their appearance in the beasts, then ,',4/,,atto
hardly be wholesome human fop
Gazette.

I

3See, Pr°.