No. 700.
Mr. Fish
to Mr. Blaine.
Legation of
the United States,
Berne, July 15, 1881.
(Received July 30.)
No. 420.]Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of
your No. 217, inclosing and accompanying a number of copies of the report of
the result of an investigation of the exaggerated allegations against
American pork and pork products, and to transmit a copy of a circular issued
by this government to the cantonal governments, in regard to the proposed
prohibition of the importation of American pork into Switzerland. I believe
that Consul Mason during my absence brought the same to your notice, and I
therefore do not accompany it with a translation.
The Federal Council finds no ground for prohibiting the importation, of a
product “which has in this country and in other countries very rarely
produced injurious effects” The circular recommends the cooking of pork
before eating, and maintains that it should be heated to 100° Centigrade, to
destroy the trichinæ in the interior of the piece.
In compliance with your instruction I have transmitted ten copies of the
report to the Federal Council, and have communicated the conclusions arrived
at on pages 14 and 15 to them in writing, and
accompanied the same with an expression of your satisfaction and
appreciation of the “judicious and temperate manner in which they have dealt
with the question.
I hope that my execution of your instruction will meet with your
approval.
I have, &c.,
[Page 1164]
[Inclosure 1 in No.
420.—Translation.]
The Federal Council to
the various States of the
Confederation.
circular of june 3, 1881.
Faithful and Dear Confederates: The voluntary
prohibition by which France has forbidden the importation of American pork has also, in other countries,
drawn public attention to the danger of using this meat. In Switzerland
the fears in regard to it have found expression in the motion presented
by Deputy Estoppey to the Council of States.
After this motion we have hastened to submit this question to a new and
searching examination. It is shown by this investigation that the
existing facts and the experiments resulting therefrom do not justify
the prohibition of the importation of American pork, and do not appear
to show the utility of a compulsory inspection of this meat on account
of trichinæ.
The very numerous examinations to which this commodity has been submitted
leave, it is true, no doubt of the tact that we oftener find trichinæ in
American than in European pork, and more especially than in that of
North Germany. The number of pieces with trichinæ found in these
examinations is about from 1 to 2.5 per cent. In Europe, and even in
Switzerland, a considerable quantity of this meat is consumed. In spite
of that, and the number of trichinæ found in it, it is nevertheless very
seldom that we have known injuries to result from it to the public
health. Especially in Switzerland we should not consider American pork
among the causes of trichinosis, in the small number of cases which have
occurred. Abroad, also, the cases of trichinosis are rare and partly
disputed. This remarkable state of things rests on the fact that, by the
preparation of the meat also, which is very salt, the trichinæ are, for
the most part, killed. It is very seldom—in Basle, for example, it has
never happened—that live trichinæ have been found in American pork, and
numerous experiments have, without exception, given a negative
result.
Moreover, we are in the habit, in order to prevent any danger that there
might be, of eating the meat only when cooked.
Consequently it does not seem to us to be justifiable to prohibit the
importation of an article of food which has had no injurious effects
among us and very few abroad, and which, by its cheapness, exerts over
the price of native meat a most salutary influence and one desired by
the public.
Moreover, the usefulness of compulsory inspection of meat on account of
trichinæ is quite as little proven. In Northern Germany, where this
inspection takes place on a grand scale, the danger of trichinosis has
not disappeared. A very minute examination of some parts of a hog does
not give absolute certainty that there is no trichinæ in the whole hog.
Partly on account of that, and partly from the fact of a careless
inspection, it often happens that hogs officially declared to be sound,
and therefore eaten, without fear, in a state more or less raw, are
found to have had trichinæ, which was later proven by the diseases which
resulted from it.
It is then not only much more simple to properly cook pork, but it is the only sure means for avoiding the
danger. It is necessary to impress more and more upon the minds of the
people, that it is not only in American pork that trichinæ are
found.
The rare cases of trichinosis thus far known in Switzerland arose from
animals slaughtered there, and in view of the international traffic
which is now being carried on in swine, it is very easy to bring among
us animals with living trichinæ.
Therefore we beg you to be pleased in whatever manner may appear to you
most practicable to call the attention of the population of your canton
to the fact that there is consumed in Switzerland much American pork,
introduced partly by Swiss houses, and that the use of
this meat, as that of pork, generally, is not without danger,
unless the meat is thoroughly cooked.
With regard to the cooking of this food, we should state that it is not
sufficient to have a heat of 60 degrees, but that it should be subjected
to the temperature of boiling water in order that the meat may have
through and through a heat sufficient to destroy trichinæ.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 420.]
Mr. Fish to Mr.
Droz.
Legation of the United States,
Berne, July 15,
1881.
The undersigned chargé d’affaires of the United States of America has the
honor, under instructions from his government, to transmit herewith to
his excellency Mr.
[Page 1165]
Droz,
President of the Swiss Confederation, and through his excellency to the
High Federal Council, ten copies of a report issued by the Government of
the United States of an examination made under its direction respecting
the allegations of an injurious character which have been so
industriously circulated in various quarters against American pork and
pork products.
In transmitting these pamphlets the undersigned is instructed to bring to
the notice of the High Federal Council the following conclusions arrived
at as the result of this investigation, viz:
- 1.
- That the swine of America are of the best and purest breeds,
and are fed and fattened for market on corn. It is not believed
that swine are thus fed in any other country.
- 2.
- That the reports published in Europe concerning the deaths of
American hogs from hog cholera are gross exaggerations.
- 3.
- That the percentage of deaths among American swine from
disease is no greater than the percentage of deaths among
European swine from similar diseases.
- 4.
- That American hogs which have died or may die of cholera or
from any cause whatever, can have no relation to the meat
product (except to decrease it), as such animals cannot by any
possibility pass the severe scrutiny and inspection to which
hogs destined for killing and curing are subject; that even if
it were possible to pass such inspection, no art of the curer
could convert such animals into meat which could pass the
inspection, in the words of a leading curer, “even of a blind
man.”
- 5.
- That the fears excited and fostered in parts of Europe by
interested persons that any portion of hogs which have died or
may die of cholera or from any other cause is or can be
converted into merchantable lard are founded on the grossest
ignorance, for merchantable lard cannot be produced from such
dead animals.
- 6.
- That every pound of the product rendered from diseased hogs,
except that part used as a fertilizer, is plainly marked “brown
grease,” “white grease,” or “dead hog’s grease,” and sold as
such largely to soap manufacturers, and that its color and odor
preclude it from being mistaken for lard.
- 7.
- That the same care is taken in the handling and manufacture of
American lard which is taken in the handling and curing of
American meats; and that, as the corn-fed American hog is the
cleanest of its species anywhere, it is undeniable that American
lard is the purest lard in any market.
- 8.
- That the percentage of American hogs infected with trichinæ
(though this question is thus far largely one of supposition),
is in all probability, by reason of the superiority of the breed
and feed, much less than that among the hogs in any other
country.
- 9.
- That the freedom from trichinosis of the two great
pork-consuming centers of the West, Chicago and Cincinnati,
furnishes the strongest possible evidence of the purity of
American pork. In Chicago for a series of years in which forty
thousand deaths were reported, with their causes, only two cases
of trichinosis were reported. In Cincinnati during the same
period not one case was reported.
- 10.
- That the reported cases of trichinosis have resulted from
eating uncooked meat shown to be inferior or rejected, and that
thorough cooking entirely destroys this parasite and removes all
danger in this regard from eating pork.
- 11.
- That the selection, inspection, and killing of American hogs
and the subsequent handling and curing of the meat; are not
surpassed if at all equaled for care, precision, and
understanding by the packers or meat-curers of any other
country.
- 12.
- That as a rule the hogs selected for foreign trade are in all
respects equal to the very best disposed of in our home
market.
- 13.
- That the great exaggerations so industriously spread in regard
to diseased pork have been aided by the different significations
attached to the word “pig.” In Europe it is used as the synonym
of hog, whereas in America it means the young swine under six
months, and generally refers to those only a few weeks old. The
number of pigs that die from various causes compared with the
numbers of hogs that die is very large, and grossly erroneous
conclusions are formed by confounding the two words.
It will be seen that these conclusions fully sustain the high character
of American pork products; that they fully demonstrate the exaggerated
character of the accusations brought against this branch of American
trade, and that they fully justify the wise and considerate decision
arrived at by the High Federal Council in reference to the proposed
exclusion of American pork from Switzerland.
The undersigned has not failed to bring to the notice of his government
the temperate and judicious action of the Federal Government of
Switzerland in dealing with this question, and he is instructed to
express the favorable appreciation of his government for the considerate
manner in which the High Federal Council has dealt with the question. A
reference to page 15 of the report shows that the same enlightened
decision has been reached by the Government of His Majesty the King of
the Belgians.
The undersigned, while executing with pleasure this instruction of his
government, avails himself, &c.,
