QUESTION. OBSERVATIONS. (Hansard, 16 May 1881)

§ LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEY

rose to ask Her Majesty's Government, Whether they will prohibit the importation of American hams of which a large proportion are infested with trichinæ and bacilli, also of such oleo-margarine or butterine as contains the grease of pigs suffering from the new disease of swine at Chicago, and the fat of horses infected with disease, or such as is adulterated with soapstone? The noble Lord said this question had attracted the attention of the Government some time ago. They had made inquiries of their Inspectors on the subject, and on the 8th of March Mr. Dodson said he believed no case of trichinosis had occurred in this country, and that there was no cause for alarm on that score. He had directed a Circular to be issued to the several sanitary authorities as to precautions in cooking hams and pork. Yet the Local Government Board's ninth Annual Report for 1879–80 contained a medical Report on 514 an epidemic on board the Cornwall school-ship, which was proved to be caused by trichinosis, by Mr. Power having exhumed a boy who had died of it, named Richard Pierce, and discovered that his body was full of trichinæ, and one still living, wandering trichina. A case of trichinosis which occurred at Kansas was thus described by the British Consul— In this case the victim was a farmer. He had been ill for some time, and became much reduced in flesh. Upon consulting a physician trichinæ were found; worms were in his flesh by the million, being scraped and squeezed from the pores of his skin. They are felt creeping through his flesh, and are literally eating up his substance. The disease is thought to have been contracted by eating sausages. The Consul reports that two persons recently died of this disease at Milwaukee and one at Chicago, and at that city several people were ill with it. From the answers given on behalf of the Government in "another place" it would appear that they were not sufficiently alive to the dangers incurred from American hams, which were frequently infested by trichinæ and bacilli. Trichinosis was frequently fatal; and the Local Board appeared, as late as the 8th of March last, to be still under the impression that these parasites could be rendered harmless by boiling the meat which contained them. A medical man, however, published the result of his experiments in The Irish Times, and stated that when boiling hams he had not obtained a higher temperature than 45 degrees inside the meat near the bone, which was much too low to kill the trichinæ. Professor Vacher, of Paris, said that the idea that ordinary cooking destroyed trichinæ was quite illusory, and that opinion was based on his experiments. He was told that this low temperature was owing to the salt in the hams. The Local Government Board also appeared to rely upon microscopic examination of hams and pork by the sanitary authorities; but it was not every person that was capable of using the microscope effectively, and the number of hams imported from America was too great for any reliance to be placed upon microscopic examination as a complete protection against the introduction of trichinosis. That was the reason why the French Government decided on prohibiting the importation of American hams by a decree dated February 18, 515 and in doing so it followed the example of Germany, Italy, Austria, Spain, Portugal, and Greece, which had already taken that step. He was informed at the Office of Commerce and Agriculture at Paris that 30 per cent of the hams examined microscopically were infested with trichinæ. Even though the attention of the French medical men was directed to an exceptionally bad consignment, yet a much smaller proportion might cause a great mortality. Trichinæ appeared to have been first heard of about the year 1835; but last year another parasite made its appearance in American hams. Seven of these were eaten by many people at a sale at Welbeck; cases of illness of as many as 72 persons were recorded, besides others that were attacked; four deaths subsequently became the subject of official investigation, and he had heard of two other deaths on the same occasion from the same cause not included in the official Report. The Report by Dr. Ballard, founded on microscopic examinations by Dr. Klein, who was a great authority in such matters, established that these parasites or organisms, to which they had given the name of bacilli, were capable of reproduction, either artificially or by being swallowed or innoculated; and their reproduction and the diseases caused by them in several organs of the body was very rapid. That was proved by experiments on various kinds of animals. All the hams that caused sickness and death to 72 known persons at Welbeck were cooked. The Government could not, therefore, continue to rely upon boiling as a safeguard, and the Circular to the medical officers which was to have been issued in March last with recommendations as to cooking, would be of no avail to prevent disease, and could only serve to obtain for the Local Government Board undeserved credit for good intentions and vigilance. Nothing short of prohibition could keep out the infected hams or secure greater care on the part of those engaged in this trade in America to exclude diseased swine. At Chicago 1,700,000 pigs were killed annually at a large establishment, and as the greatest activity in that trade was from November to May about 12,000 pigs were killed in a day at that modern Gennesareth. M. Molinari, the French agriculturist, had visited and described the establishment and the rapidity with 516 which the pigs were killed. And in dealing with such large numbers it was impossible to expect sufficient care to have been taken to exclude the unhealthy. There was, however, another danger in American meats and butters, perhaps worse than those of trichinosis. All these products were mixed with some chemical solution of an antiseptic nature, such as salicylic acid, chloride of lime, bisulphate of lime, potash, borax, creosote, pyroligneous acid, carbolic acid, sulphuric acid. All these solutions were injurious to and undermined the constitution; and if an excessive quantity were present in a portion of the meat, these drugs might have a fatal effect. With regard to the butterine or oleo-margarine, there were two questions, that of fraud with regard to wholesome oleo-margarine which was sold as butter, and that of the inferior and unwholesome qualities of butterine. It appeared from the Correspondence lately presented to Parliament that a very large quantity of oleo-margarine was imported and sold in this country as butter, and at a price far in excess of its value or the cost of producing it, the difference of the price of cost and sale having been stated to be as much as 5d. and 1s. a pound. An attempt had been made by the American trade to obtain real Cork firkins in order to pass off these compounds as Cork butter. But besides the butterine made under Mège's patent in a few well-known factories, there was a great number of compounds made in imitation of oleo-margarine, of pig's fat and the fat of diseased horses. Some persons in the United States had been very angry with some of the foreign Consuls for having attributed to mortality among the swine at Chicago to trichinosis, when it was really only a kind of cholera, or a disease to which they had given that name; but whatever the disease, the prevalence of it should be a reason, if not for prohibition of the butterine called suine, at least for its being not allowed to enter this country except under its true name. Mr. Arthur Arnold, M.P. for Salford, had shown that much of the butterine sold in Manchester was unfit for food; but that, owing to the omission of the word "butter" in the Public Health Act of 1875, the health officers could not interfere with it. The majority against the Resolution of Sir Herbert Maxwell was only 16. American industry had 517 reached a lower depth of adulteration, and soapstone powder was largely used to increase the bulk of flour and butterine. Everyone knew, from the label on Dinneford's fluid magnesia, that magnesia might cause obstructions; and he had a good medical opinion that soapstone powder was still more likely to cause obstructions. The right hon. Member for Birmingham (Mr. Chamberlain) said he had a medical opinion in favour of the wholesomeness of soapstone—he was, probably, the only man who would rely upon it.