r 
 
 Illinois State Board of Health. 
 
 r 
 
 RECOMMENDATIONS TO MUNICIPALITIES 
 
 CONCERNING THE 
 
 SALE OF UNDRAWN POULTRY, 
 
 The Illinois State Board of Health, acting in the interest of 
 the lives and health of the people, urgently recommends to the 
 mayors and councils of all cities and the presidents and hoards 
 of trustees of all villages, and to the health officials in all parts 
 of the state, the enactment and enforcement of ordinances pro- 
 hibiting the sale of poultry, fish, game, or any animal used for 
 food which have not been properly drawn and cleaned at the 
 time of slaughtering. 
 
 The necessity for such ordinances and their enforcement is 
 plainly indicated by the rapidly growing custom of storing 
 poultry, fish and game containing the entrails and other viscera, 
 and offering them for sale long periods of time' after being 
 killed, and the danger to the public health caused by this cus- 
 tom. 
 
 It is known to all physicians and physiologists that there 
 are generated in the body of any animal poisons of the highest 
 degree of toxicity. The intestines and other digestive organs 
 contain at all times materials which have undergone putrefac- 
 tive changes. If this material be permitted to remain in the 
 body after death, the poisons generated may infiltrate the en- 
 tire flesh, making it dangerous to the person who eats it. The 
 body in which the viscera are permitted to remain undergoes 
 decomposition much more rapidly than when such viscera have 
 been removed. Decomposition is further hastened by leaving 
 the blood in the vessels of the body. 
 
On this point the U. S. Department of Agriculture, in Bul- 
 letin No. 144, speaks as follows : 
 
 “ Under precisely the same conditions of temperature and 
 humidity, drawn fowls will keep from twenty to thirty days 
 longer than those not drawn. The presence of undigested 
 food and of excrementitious substances in animals which have 
 been killed most certainly favors the tainting of the flesh and 
 general decomposition. The viscera are the first parts to show 
 putrescence, and allowing these to remain within the body can- 
 not do otherwise than favor infection of the flesh with bacteria 
 and ptomaines, even if osmosis does not actually carry putrid 
 juices to contiguous tissues. Hunters know the value of draw- 
 ing birds as soon as possible after they have been shot ,in order 
 to keep them fresh and sweet and to prevent their having a 
 strong intestinal flavor. ” 
 
 It has become a custom among wholesale poulterers and 
 packers to purchase poultry during the early summer, when the 
 prices are lowest, and to keep them in cold storage until winter, 
 or until prices are at the highest. Such fowls are killed with- 
 out thorough bleeding, often plucked before death, and placed 
 in cold storage, without removing the entrails and other viscera. 
 Frequently they are not offered for sale until many months 
 after killing. 
 
 The process of decomposition and putrefaction begins at 
 once after the death of the animal. Cold storage and freezing 
 may limit the rotting process, but do not entirely stop it. When 
 poultry cr animals are taken from cold storage and aie thawed 
 out for exhibition and sale, the decomposition continues with 
 marked energy, impregnating the flesh with poisons — and this 
 decomposition is exceedingly rapid even when the poultry is 
 kept in the market or grocery refrigerator, the temperature of 
 which is much higher than that of the cold storage warehouse. 
 Flesh in which the blood has been permitted to remain is par- 
 ticulary susceptible to such decomposition, and this suscepti- 
 bility is increased by the long period of freezing and thawing. 
 
Even with poultry which is “ freshly killed’ ’ there is fre- 
 quently a period of several days between the time of slaughtering 
 and sale. Not only is it dangerous, but it is repugnant to our 
 sense of decency, that the flesh we are to eat shall lie for several 
 days in close contact with putrefying animal matter. 
 
 Undoubtedly undrawn poultry, fish and game have caused 
 many cases of poisoning which have been wrongly attributed to 
 other sources. The poisoning resulting often resembles that 
 caused by other poisons administered by persons or taken with 
 suicidal intent. Many sufferers from digestive troubles — head- 
 ache, nausea, colic and diarrhea after eating, owe their ailments 
 to tainted foods. 
 
 We are advised that the reason for slaughtering poultry 
 without thorough bleeding is the saving in the weight of the 
 fowl, and this reason is doubtless also one for the storing of 
 (/I poultry and offering it for sale without removing the viscera. 
 y, There is, however, no reason why the consumer should be com- 
 ^ pelled to purchase a large percentage of excreta, offal and 
 ^ refuse with his poultry. We would not tolerate the addition of 
 ? ^ a certain percentage of weight in the form of entrails of the 
 P? steer with each beefsteak we buy. The consumer purposes to 
 buy edible food and not the disgusting waste which should be 
 eliminated in the process of slaughtering and dressing. It is 
 just as reasonable to ask the consumer to buy hogs, calves and 
 f lafnbs without the intestines removed, as to solicit his purchase 
 of undrawn turkeys and chickens. 
 
 The protection of the people of a municipality from 
 
 1 1 ) 
 
 • these dangerous and repulsive foods lies within the juris- 
 l diction of its own officials. The State Board of Health conse- 
 t - quently urges that such ordinances covering this subject shall 
 H be enacted as will give to the people the degree of protection 
 ns' to which they are entitled. 
 
 Not only should proper ordinances be enacted and en- 
 forced, hut the people should also be advised to carefully in- 
 
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 spect the fowls the;y buy, and take none which have been kept 
 in storage with the entrails unremoved. 
 
 The following ordinance, if properly enforced, will prove 
 effective : 
 
 Section I. — It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or cor- 
 poration, within the limits of the city (or village) of , 
 
 to sell, offer or expose for sale, any animal, used for food pur- 
 poses, refrigerated or otherwise, which has not been properly 
 drawn and prepared by removing the viscera (bowels-entrails) 
 at the time of slaughter. 
 
 Section 2. — Any persons, firm or corporation, violating any 
 of the provisions of this ordinance shall be deemed guilty of a 
 misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by 
 a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars or by imprisonment in 
 the city (or village) prison not to exceed thirty days, or by both 
 such fine and imprisonment. 
 
 There is no doubt as to the validity of such an ordinance, 
 or the power of a municipality to enforce it. Under the pro- 
 visions of section 62, chapter 24, of the Revised Statutes, coun- 
 cils of cities and trustees of villages are given almost absolute 
 and unrestrained control of the agencies affecting the public 
 health. In connection with this the Supreme Court of Illinois, 
 in the case of Mason et al. vs. the City of Shawneetown, 77 111., 
 533, says: 
 
 “When an incorporated town or city has been invested 
 with power to pass an ordinance, by the legislature, for the gov- 
 ernment or welfare of the municipality, an ordinance enacted 
 by the legislative branch of the corporation in pursuance of an 
 act creating the corporation, has the same force and effect of a 
 law passed by the legislature, and cannot be regarded other- 
 wise than as a law of and within the corporation. An ordinance 
 is the law of the inhabitants of the municipality. ’ ’ 
 
 Published by order of the State Board of Health. 
 
 “JAMES A. EGAN, M. D., 
 
 Feb. 7, 1906. Secretary.”