The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-10-25
Cancer-Tainted Meat.
TChieago Times.I

CancerouS cattle have been shipped
to the stock-yards recently and there
purchased by butchers for sale to
local consumers. That some of the
cattle were afflicted with the disease
was discovered few weeks ago, and
Health Officer Lamb began making
more minute inspection of the stock,
but not until several diseased head
had been sold. On Thursday Officer
Lamb found nine infected cattle, and
promptly had them removed from the
yards. Yesterday he found seven,
missing one, which was sold to a
butcher and removed to the slaughter
house. The part of the cattle most
commonly the seat of the cancer is
the tongue, but some of them seen
lately had large sores on their sides
and neck. Though the number of
diseased cattle is but very small
proportion of the 5000 or 5000 received
daily, yet the discovery, coming at
time when American cattle are being
condemned abroad and the slightest
pretext is seized upon for bulling the
market, has been productive of some
occasioned slight downward ten
dency in prices. The cattle affected
come from various parts of the
country.
Inspector Lamb was seen at his re-
sidence, No. 5000 South Halstead
street, last night. YES" said he,
there are lot of diseased cattle COM
ing in. There have been fifty or fifty
one in the last three months whose
heads were all swollen up and nearly
rotton from cancer. l found nine
cancerous cattle to-day and nine yes
terday. The cancer is mainly caused
by snake-bites, but is also inherited.
The heads of animals that have can
Ger swell up to about twice its natural
size and the cattle get thin. The dis
ease appears in the jaw and extends
from the nose up to the eye. Its prin-
cipal seat is in the gullet, where is
usually big running so e. When L
open these sores with my knife mat
ter comes out in large quantities. l
have tried to find all the cancerous
cattle. but there is no doubt but that
a good many Of them have escaped
me, have been sold to butchers and
have been eaten by people of all clas-
seS of society. The meat is unfit for
any use and transmits disease to the
consumer. The effect may not be so
bad nor so instantaneous as that
which follows the swine with trichi-
nae, but it is so bad l wouldn't want
the meaneSt cur to eat any of it. 1t is
very easy matter to tell when cattle
have cancer, but good many of the
scalpers or middle men at the stock
yards pretend that they cannot tell.
Even when 1 condemn a bullock to
death as unfit for use as food the
scalpers persist in declaring there is
nothing wrong with it, and have to
enlarge the opening of the sore and
show them the matter before they &C
knowledge it is diseased. Sometimes
after have opened the wound they
try to run the bullock off and sell
him. They claim 1 have no jurisdic-
ton over any cattle except the cattle
1 know is to be sold in Chicago
These scalpers cause me good deal
of trouble. They can purchase the
cancerous cattle for very small
price, and if they can sell them they
get nearly as much as they would foI
sound cattle, and consequently the
profit is large, and the temptation to
evade the law is very strong. One
scalper in particular, a man named
Jim hobart, does all he can to evade
the law. To-day bunch of cattle
was coming in from Jackson, and ii
was a bullock that had the cancer
After l condemned it Sam Hoffman
the owner of the drove, asked me to
let him take it away and weigh it, sc
he would know how much to charge
the man who had sold it to him. ]
let him take the bullock off, and then
Jim hobart had him try to get away
with it to sell it. But l found it and
had it shot. hobart and some of the
other scalpers got mad and for q
while there was quite lively time
l tell you this to show you the deter.
mination of this class of men to en-
danger the lives of the residents OF
Chicago in order to put few dollars in
their own pockets. | don't believe
cattle catch the cancer from one an
other, but | know that it is incurable
Laying aside the faint in the cattle's
blood because of the cancer, the lean.
ness it causes would make the meat
unfit for food. Why, the cattle get
so lean they look us if scarcely able to
move. Most of the stock affected is
from Illinois, but cancerouS cattle are
to be found in all of the stock-yard
divisions-from Michigan, Missouri
Kansas and Texas, though only few
from Texas. Chicago is the dumping
ground of the whole country. People
send the best cattle East and let the
poor ones stay here. They know the
strict inspection laws in the East and
the rigid way they are enforced would
prevent diseased cattle from being
sold there. do not doubt that meat
almost entirely rotten and full of
worms is sometimes sold hpre''