The San Francisco call., 1910-05-28
chase meat they knew is filled with

chase meat they knew is filled with
infection.
1t should be the desire of every
one TO carry out those hygienic
laws that will result in the stamp
ing out of so easily preyentable
disease as tuberculosis. In Ger
many the slogan is, No tuberculo-
sis by $780," and though this may
be said TO be Utopian 1t shows that
medical men in Germany feel that
by taking the proper @measures
tuberculosis can be mastered.
am in favor OF the ordinance,
as I am in favor of all legislation
that will protect our citizens
against tuberculosis. II may be-l
do not say ii is so-that the tuber-
cular meat might be taken into the
stomachs of people of strong vital
ity and no harm result. The dis
ease is thrown off. But II the germs
were taken into the stomachs or
people of low vitality, unable TO
resist the disease, 1t might inject
f"i It is better. anyway. not to take
chances. If only one of great
number of people is to contract tu-
cular meat then the profit from
tubercular meat, no matter how
large it is, is too small to pay for
Dr.. Henry Harris said last night:
It is not advisable to use for food
any part of an animal definitely
infected with tuberculosis. AS the
matter now stands, it is much more
discreet. certainly. to avoid COM :
ing in contact with anything that
NAV carry the infection, and most
surely tubercular meat should not
be used as food. Heat destroys
the germs of tuberculosis, we know,
but very often meat is not cooked
sufficiently to destroy these germs, =
and very often meat is served abb
solutely uncooked.
DR. Raymond Russ, when asked abou
the ordinance as it stands, said:
1t is a sane measure, and one de-
signed after years of experience.
feel that meat inspection should
be conducted with extreme care,
and this ordinance is intended to
bring that about. We can not have
tuberculosis in meat we eat and
expect to be healthy human beings.
There is q great and constant dan
ger, and society must be protected
where it is possible This law, / am
sure, is the result of mature
thought and wide experience.
1t is health that is involved, 1t
seems to me, and not the number
of cattle concerned or the dollars
and cents that surround the issue.
EATON OPPOSES LAW
Yesterday the following statement
was made by Doctor Eaton of the board
of health. who decried the structures
placed upon the boards action in ask
ing the repeal of the meat inspection
ordinance in effect July l and said the
physicians who charged him and thf
board members with passing" tuber-
cular beeves did not know what they
were talking about. Eaton said the
new law would require force of 81
INSPECTORS TO make it work; that il
would kill off the small men and
put the industry in trust" and that
it had been drawn to- make Chiei
Sanitary Inspector Hassler king OF
ButcherJown.'
AS president of the board | have
appointed Commissioner Murray,
who is practical butcher; Doctor
Manning and our Inspector Mack
innoe to meet representatives of
the butchers, wholesalers, retailers
and sausa gemen and formulate
bill that will work and do justice
There are a good many miscon-
ceptions floating around about this
business. We are still operating
under the law, state law which
has been in force during the terms
of several health boards. We did !
not ask the repeal of this imprac-
tical measure until the supervisors
turned down in the budget our
recommendation that we have 1
more inspectors, refusing to give
us one.
AS matter of fact we know
that at the present time a good
deal of poor meat is smuggled into
. the city Our FIVE inspectors can't
catch all of it, any more than the
federal service can stop the i'm
p'I l sdonst believe. though. that
many healthy people suffer from
eating tubercular beef. There is
more danger any day from being
in the streets of the city and
breathing the common air. Heat
ing meat to 120 degrees kills the
tubercular germ, and the stomachic
and intestinal secretions take care
of the baciln in ordinary cases.
I repeat that five years tests
would virtually wipe out the sup
ply of stock in California If every
time q beef or hog showed a trace
of tuberculosis it were slaugh-
tered. Halle the people you meet
have tuberculosis or have had 1t.
More than three-quarters of all
bodies examined in a three years'
test in eastern cities showed the
effects of the disease. although
most of those dying had met their
end from other causes.
The board is not passing any
tubercular meat it can lay its
hands on and will not We are
going TO throw ourselves on the
mercy of the supervisors and ask
them to give us at least four or
five more inspectors to carry out
the law we have This with the
ordinance we are to draft we hone
will keep conditions sound.