Rural Hygiene

by Henry N. Ogden

When the milk supplied to the larger cities is furnished as in New York, the impossibility of controlling the quality of the supply becomes apparent. The farmer brings to the shipping station his two or three large cans of milk, representing the night's and morning's milkings. These are loaded on a train along with hundreds of others, a few chunks of ice are thrown on top, and the train is started for New York, from points as far as two hundred and fifty miles away, reaching the city in the early evening. There it is received and hauled to milk stations, where it is distributed in different-sized cans and bottles, and the next morning, thirty-six hours old, distributed to the babies of the city as fresh milk. Thanks to the energetic inspection practiced by the officers of the Department of Health of New York City, who have emptied hundreds of quarts of milk into the city gutters merely because the temperature of the milk was higher than that prescribed, the quality of the milk is not so bad as it might be. In fact, the writer has bought apparently good milk on Long Island, shipped down from New York City, because the local supply was deficient in quantity and inferior in quality, although the latter would naturally be supposed to be fresh and the other was certainly forty-eight hours old on its receipt.

Cleanliness and care are the two watchwords for good milk, and both practices ought to be observed faithfully by the milk producer, whether he has in mind the health of his own family or the health of the dwellers in the city hundreds of miles away.

Dangers of diseased meat.

Next to milk, the product of the farm which has most to do with the health of those to whom farm products are sent is the meat which comes from the cows, sheep, and pigs, and makes a large part of the farmer's produce. To be sure, the amount of meat thus sent to market from the farm is by no means as great as in former years, since even the smallest village to-day has representatives of Swift and Co., Schwartzman and Sulzenberger, Jacob Dold, and others of the great western packing houses. There is still, however, a great deal of local butchering, and it is important that the farmer himself should know the characteristics of meat and should be so impressed with the dangers of diseased meat that the temptation to unload a bad carcass on the unsuspecting public may be overcome. There is nothing more certain in sanitary science than that the application of heat destroys animal parasites and micro-organisms, so that, except for diminishing the nutritive value, there is comparatively little real danger in eating diseased meat when cooked, and the fearful ravages of bad ham have been largely due to occasions where the ham has been eaten raw or semi-raw.

There are two points to be noted in an animal about to be killed, namely, whether the animal is healthy, that is, free from disease,—and whether it is in proper condition, neither too young nor too old, is well-grown and well-nourished. Among the diseases to which animals are subject, some are objectionable because of the possibility of the direct transmission of their disease to those eating the flesh, while others are objectionable because the flesh is spoiled and so causes irritation in the stomach and intestines of those eating it. Among the former diseases may be mentioned trichinosis, tuberculosis, and measles of pigs. In the latter category are animals suffering from such diseases as epidemic pneumonia, foot-and-mouth disease, Texas fever, anthrax, hog cholera, and others in which a general toxic condition of the animal's system results from the disease. Toxins are thus formed in the body which may pass to the human being eating the flesh, and in this way poisons called ptomaines are produced, resulting in so-called toxic poisoning. It is not the function of this book to describe the symptoms peculiar to each of these diseases, and it is here sufficient to say that the flesh of no animal apparently suffering from any disease should be used for food.

The unhealthy animal can usually be recognized by a casual examination, without undertaking to define the specific disease from which the animal is suffering, characterized by such an examination. When sick, according to Parkes, the coat of the animal is rough or standing, the nostrils are dry or covered with foam, the eyes are heavy, the tongue protrudes, the respiration is difficult, the movements are slow and uncertain, and the various organs of the body perform their functions abnormally. On the other hand, the healthy animal moves freely, has a bright eye and moist nostril and a clear skin, the respiration is not hurried and the breath has no unpleasant odor, the circulation is tranquil, and the appetite good, thirst not excessive, and, if ruminant, when in repose, chews the cud.

There is, however, one exception to this general rule, and that is in the case of tuberculosis, since the most scientific observations have failed to trace any connection between the inception of tuberculosis in man and the eating of meat from tuberculous animals, or to show any evil effects to man from eating the flesh of cows affected in the first stages of tuberculosis. The regulations of the United States Department of Agriculture on this point are as follows:——

"All carcasses affected with tuberculosis and showing emaciation shall be condemned. All other carcasses affected with tuberculosis shall be condemned, except those in which the lesions are slight, calcified, or encapsulated, and are confined to certain tissues ... and excepting also those which may ... be rendered into lard or tallow."

The regulations referred to say in substance that when the lesions occur in a single part of the body, as in the neck, liver, lungs, or in certain specified combinations, the meat may be used; but that where the lesions affect more than one or two parts of the body, the carcass must be rendered at a temperature of not less than 220 degrees Fahrenheit for four hours into lard or tallow.

This really means that an animal only slightly affected with tuberculosis, where the lesions are slight and are confined to the tissues of certain organs only, may be used for food. This has been decided only after very careful reading of all known facts, and is particularly important in view of the opposition to the use of milk of tuberculous cows. The tuberculin test, on which depends the determination of tuberculosis in cows, is so delicate that a very slight lesion is sufficient to cause a reaction. The lesions are so slight as in many cases to be entirely overlooked by the ordinary butcher. The United States regulations allow such a carcass to be butchered and used for food after the cow has been condemned by the tuberculin test as a milk-producing animal. This does not mean, of course, that those parts of the body affected by the tuberculosis lesions shall be used, but, since these lesions are usually segregated, they can readily be cut out without reference to the rest of the body.