Entered according to Act of Congress, A. D. 1875, by A. N. BELL, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

THE SANITARIAN.

A MONTHLY JOURNAL.

VOL. III.]

APRIL, 1875.

[No. 25.

THE GATHERING, PACKING, TRANSPORTATION AND SALE OF FRESH VEGETABLES AND FRUITS.-COMPETENT INSPECTION, AND FREE MARKETS FOR PRODUCERS.

(Read before thE AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION, PHILADELPHIA, 1874.)

By SAMUEL C. BUSEY, M. D., Washington, D. C.

Ir is not my purpose, at present, to discuss this question in all its important relations to the health of cities and of communities of consumers, but briefly to invite the attention of this association to a few suggestive inquiries, with the view of securing, through a competent committee, a thorough consideration of the effects upon public health, of the deterioration of fresh vegetables and fruits, as offered for sale in the markets of the principal cities of this country, and how far this deterioration is attributable to the manner of gathering, mode of packing, and transportation from the farm or garden to the city markets.

No one will maintain that masses of consumers can be supplied with vegetables and fruits in the same state of freshness and perfection as the rural population, for all must admit that under the most favorable conditions, with every requisite care, many vegetables and fruits rapidly lose freshness, flavor and nutrient qualities. The state of perfect maturity speedily passes, and deterioration and decay begin. So, likewise, must it be conceded that, as a rule, fresh and mature vegetables, in their proper seasons, contribute to enjoyment and health; and, in the country, rarely provoke disease; and, furthermore, I need hardly remind you that, in our American cities, the summer intestinal diseases and digestive troubles usually begin with the introduction of certain fresh vegetables. Here I will be met with the objection that the intestinal diseases mostly prevail among very young children, who are consumers of vegetables and fruits to a very limited extent, and that the rising temperature, so necessary to the growth and maturity of vegetables, together with the foul exhalations and improper hygienic. conditions, contribute chiefly to the production of the wide-spread epidemics of intestinal diseases which annually decimate the infantile population. The influence of these agencies I concede, but I am impressed with the conviction that intestinal diseases as frequently find

their cause in that which is ingested as in that which is smelled or inhaled. The cause is often something more tangible and gustatory than the foetid and subtle emanations which hygienists have striven so long to define and to circumscribe. I am disposed to shield Providence from the alleged agency in the causation of many of the "ills which flesh is heir to," and to ascribe them to the indulgence of our own insatiate thirst and fondness for the "good things of this world." Even among very young children, the intestinal diseases are frequently directly traceable to the ingestion of unwholesome fruits and vegetables; nor is the nursling exempt from the danger, even though the deleterious influence may only reach it through the defective milk supply of the mother feeding upon immature or deteriorated vegetables and fruits. In this connection, permit me, briefly, to call your attention to a few admitted faots. Not that I wish to use them to maintain any exclusive doctrine of causation, or to construct any new theory, but rather to extend the field of inquiry, and to direct your studies away from a too exclusive consideration of the very prevalently received opinions and theories in regard to the ever fermenting and wide spreading agency of bad smelling, impure and foul exhalations, as the chief and segregate cause of summer intestinal diseases.

Intestinal diseases, both among adults and children, are comparatively rare in the farming regions, and both classes of the rural population, adult and infantile, are more generally consumers of fruits and vegetables, and suffer less detriment therefrom, than like classes of the population of cities. Far the larger proportion of infantile intestinal diseases occurs among those beyond the age of six months, that is, subsequent to the period at which the natural aliment is usually considered by the laity adequate to the demands of growth and development; and far the larger percentage of mortality occurs among the children of the poor and squalid residents of cities-the class necessarily the most indiscreet consumers of cheap and deteriorated vegetables and fruits. Statistics establish the greater prevalence of these diseases between the ages of six and thirty months, and among the artificially fed; and greater proportionate mortality in, the densely populated districts, and among the children of the poorer classes. Can it be that those under six months, those advanced beyond thirty months, and those nursed at the breast, are less exposed to and less impressible by atmospheric influences? Undoubtedly the intercurrent affections and developmental peculiarities of the period exercise very considerable influence in predisposing to intestinal disease; but, assuredly, improper alimentation. must constitute the chief among the many factors concerned in the etiology. It is then manifest that intestinal diseases are most prevalent during the warmer months of the year-June, July, August and September, when vegetables and fruits are most abundant and deterioration most rapid-are proportionately far more frequent among communities of consumers, who can only obtain supplies by purchase, and are most fatal among the poor, who from necessity become the purchasers of the cheapest and most deteriorated.

These are significant facts, not adduced to disprove the manifold ill effects of a bad atmosphere, and of fœtid exhalations, but to invite your attention to the consideration of another, and perhaps, as frequent

and direct an agency in the causation of intestinal diseases: and to illustrate, as well, the comparative innocuousness of fresh, mature and properly gathered fruits and vegetables, as to demonstrate their pernicious and disease-producing qualities as supplied to and consumed by the inhabitants of cities.

To further elaborate the distinct question here at issue-the agency of immature and deteriorated fruits and vegetables in producing intestinal diseases, and the more strikingly to exhibit the qualitative changes which they speedily undergo after preparation for market-I will select a few of those most generally consumed, and describe the mode of gathering, packing and conveying, and their condition when exposed for sale.

The Irish potato, perhaps the most popular aliment supplied from the "truck farm," when mature and properly cooked, is a wholesome and nutritious article of diet, carries well, and preserves its flavor and nutrient qualities, even in very warm weather, for a reasonable time. It has a stage of ripeness, marked by a thick and firmly adherent skin, and when cooked breaks upon very gentle pressure, into a semi-dry mealy mass. In this condition the producer supplies them to his own family. Young children consume them with comparative impunity. In the early spring we are usually supplied from Bermuda, with a variety which, as a rule is in a fair state of preservation, but the general demand and high price soon draw a supply in succession from Savannah, Charleston, Norfolk, and the farms in the immediate vicinity. The tubers are gathered, not because they are ripe, but because they are merchantable, that is, have attained sufficient size, perhaps washed, better not, packed in barrels and transported to the place of sale. In this tender, succulent and growing state they are easily bruised, have a smooth, thin, delicate and slightly adherent surface covering, and we find them in the market with partially peeled and ragged surfaces, the loosened parts of the cuticle partially attached to the remaining adhering pieces. These are the unavoidable results of gathering before maturity, rough handling, improper packing, and of the heating process-preliminary to other deteriorating changes, through which they wholly or partially pass, before they are exposed for sale. The extent of these degenerative changes is proportionate to the elapse of time and closeness of packing, and perhaps also to the mode of transportation. The heating, or rather steaming, process favors the detachment of the partially developed cuticle, as it does of the matured skin. I need hardly inform you that the destruction or removal of the surface covering, which nature provides for protection and prese. vation, favors and hastens the decay of all perishable fruits and vegetables. Such tubers cook waxy, cut cheese-like, bite doughy, and taste greenish and weedy. They are served upon our tables with savory dressings, and eaten with relish, but they are only partially digestible and, in the main, pass from the bowels in white, doughy, unaffected lumps. Of the consumers, some escape unhurt, some suffer a pang or two, others, fortunately, purge freely, but the less fortunate suffer more seriously. To many young children, whose digestive powers are inadequate to the complete digestion of any starchy aliment, these tubers, mashed and commingled with savory gravies, are fed as choice and nutrient morsels,