No. 86.
Mr. Morton to Mr. Frelinghuysen .

No. 138.]

Sir: I have the honor to inform you that the committee to which the bill providing for the free introduction into France of foreign pork had been referred, has made a favorable report, and that the question will come up in the Chamber on the 23d instant. All indications now point to the passage of the bill.

The Academy of Medicine, to which the government had submitted the matter, has pronounced itself against the measures resorted to or contemplated for obstructing the importation of pork. I annex herewith a copy of the report of the academy, which has been kindly furnished by Dr. Wm. E. Johnston.

The Academy of Medicine of France is an official body, authorized to answer the questions on sanitary measures propounded to it by the government, and its decisions, when uttered in a clear and decided manner, as in the present case, have great influence with the executive and legislative departments of the government.

I have, &c.,

L. P. MORTON.
[Page 153]
[Inclosure in No. 138.]

Dr. Johnston to Mr. Morton.

Dear Sir: I have the honor and the pleasure to inform you that after a full discussion of the question of trichinæ in connection with American pork at the National Academy of Medicine of Paris, a discussion which ran through several sittings, that body has come to a decision which fully justifies the views your legation has maintained on this question.

The Academy of Medicine of France is an official body authorized to answer in an official manner the questions on sanitary measures propounded to it by the government; and its decisions, when uttered in a clear and decided manner, as in the present case, always meet with the deference on the part of the government to which they are entitled.

I subjoin the declaration voted by the academy.

I have, &c.,

W. E. JOHNSTON, M. D.

Report at the National Academy of Medicine of France on the question, propounded by the government, of the necessity of an inspection of foreign pork.

The academy taking into consideration:

1st.
That for a great many years American and German pork has been freely admitted into France, without having been submitted to any kind of inspection as regards trichinæ;
2d.
That notwithstanding the very extended use which has been made of this kind of meat, especially in the army and the large manufacturing and industrial districts, the disease called trichinosis, with the exception of a single case, which was produced by indigenous pork, has not been observed in any part of France, although at the same time the attention of physicians has been frequently called to that disease in Germany;
3d.
That this immunity enjoyed by the people of France in regard to trichinosis is due without any doubt to their culinary habits, pork being never eaten in France without having been submitted to such a temperature in cooking as is incompatible with the life of trichinæ;
4th.
That an efficacious microscopic inspection would be with difficulty applied to the enormous mass of ninety millions of pounds of pork, which is the annual amount of importation, and that, in any case, the inspection would not prove to be a certain guarantee of the innocuity of the pork as. regards trichinæ, since the irregularity of the dissemination of trichinæ does not permit the conclusion that because they do not exist in one part they may not exist in another, is of the opinion that it is not necessary to submit imported pork to a microscopic inspection, in order to prevent trichinosic infection, the culinary habits of the people of France being such as to demonstrate thus far that the precautions used in cooking are sufficient to preserve them from the infection; and that it suffices to put them on their guard against the possible dangers of the use of raw or incompletely cooked pork, to point out to them by a special printed instruction these dangers, and to distribute these instructions through the aid of the government agents to every part of France.

A minority report on an unimportant point was read by a member of the committee, and was rejected by the academy.