The Russellville Democrat., 1884-09-04


4 Cancerous cattle have been shipped
/ TO the stock yards recently, aud there
/ purchased by butchers for sale TO local
/ consumers. That some of the cattle
were aft cted with the disease was dis
covered few days ago, and Health
Officer Lamb found nine infected cattle,
and promptly had them removed from
the yards. Yesterday he found seven.
missing one, which was sold to q butch
er and removed TO the slaughter-house.
Tie 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 the diseased cattle is but a
very small proportion of the 5000 OF
1900 received daily. yet the discovery,
coming at time when American cattle
are being condemned abroad and the
slightest pretext is seized upon for bull
ing the market, has been productive OF
some excitement among buyers, and has
occasioned slight downward tendency
in prices The cattle affected come from
various parts of the country.
Inspector Lamb was seen at his resi-
dence, No 2509 South Halstead street,
last night. "Yes.' said he, there are
lot Of diseased cattle coming in. There
have been fifty or fifty-one in tho last
three months whose heads were all
swollen up and nearly rotten from can
Ger. ] found nine oancerous cattle to-
day and nine yesterday. The cancer is
mainly caused by snake-btes, but is also
inherited. The heads of animals that
have cancer swell up to about twice the
natural size, and the cattle get thin.
The disease appears in the jaw and ex-
tends from the nose up to the eye. Its
principal seat is in the gullet, where is
usually big running sore. When l
open these sores with my knife matter
comes out in large quantities. | have
tried to find all the cancerous cattle.
but there is no doubt that good many
of them have escaped me, have been
sold to butchers and have been eaten by
people of all classes 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
asfthat which follows the use of swine
with trichina, but it is SO bad
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 middlcmen at
the stock yards pretend that they can
not tell. Even when I condemn bull
lock to death, as unfit for use as food,
the scalpers persist in declaring there is
nothing wrong with it, and I have to
enlarge the opening of the sore and
show the matter to them before they
will acknowledge it is diseased. Some
times, after have opened the wound.
they try to run the bullock off and sell
him. They claim have no jurisdiction
over any cattle except the cattle know
are to be sold in Chicago. These scalp
ors 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 for sound cattle, and conse-
quently the profit is large, and the
temptation to evade the law is very
strcng. One scalper in particular, does
all he can to evade TIE law. To-day a
bunch of cattle was coming in from
Jackson, and in 1t was bullock that
had the cancer. After condemned it
Sam Hoffman, the owner of the drove,
asked me to let him take it away and
weigh it, so he would know how much
to charge the man who had sold it TO
him. / let him take the bullock off,
and then the said scalper had him try to
get away with it to sellit. But found it
and had it shot. hobart and some of
the other scalpers got mad, and for a
while there was quite q lively time. l
tell you this to show you the determine
ton of his class of men to endanger the
lives of the residents of Chicago in or
der to put few dollars in their own
pockets. / don't believe cattle catch
the cancer from one another, but know
that it is incurable. Laying aside the
faint in the cattle's blood because of the
cancer, the leanness it causes would
make the meat unfit for food. Why,
the cattle get so thin they look as If
scarcely able to move Most of the
stock affected is from Illinois, but can
cerous cattle are to be found in all the
stock yard divisions from Michigan,
Missouri, Kansas aud 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 be-
ing sold there, and so they dispose of
all the refuse stock here. l do not
doubt that, meat almost entirely rotten
and full of worms is sometimes sold
here. - Chicago Times.