No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 118 



vicinity of the slaughter house into a filthy piar pen, leading to the contam- 

 ination of the building- itself and the products therein prepared, and stored, 

 and it is objectionable because many diseases with which food producing ani- 

 mals may be affected are by this means transmitted to hogs to whom their 

 entrails are fed. Where hogs are fed on the premises it is quite impossible 

 to keep a slaughter house and its surroundings in the sanitary condition that 

 should be maintained. Tuberculosis and parasitic diseases are the conditions 

 that are most likely to be transmitted to hogs through tlie feeding of slaughter 

 house offal. 



The fact that certain slaughter houses in other states and in Pennsylvania, 

 are under careful Federal inspection, and that diseased animals slaughtered in 

 such estalilishments are sure to be detected and condemned, has the effect of 

 turning animals that are suspected during life of being diseased to slaughter 

 houses other than those under Federal inspection. Numerous positive in- 

 stances are known wherein animals suspected, or known, to be diseased have 

 been purchased for slaughter in local establishments after they have been re- 

 fused l)y the buyers of federally inspected establishments. This is a condition 

 that renders necessary the establishment of a State meat hygiene service. 



It is most unfair to the consumers of meats and to tlie tax payers to spend 

 $3,000,000 for meat inspection under the auspices of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture and create the impression that there is an efficient 

 meat inspection throughout the country, and then to permit entrance to the 

 market of a large quantity of products from diseased animals that are killed 

 under no inspection at all. Morover, it is unfair to slaughtering establishments 

 that are conducted in accordance with reasonalDle requirements of meat hy- 

 giene, to allow the sale in competition with products in such an establishment, 

 of diseased and dangerous meats from uninspected establishments. The 

 slaughter houses under Federal inspection have to sell their products in the 

 same market and in competition with the products of establishments that are 

 under no restriction. To exact these necessary hygienic requirements and to 

 inflict the expense and loss that come from the improvement of establishments 

 and the condemnation of animals and products upon a certain set of meat pur- 

 veyors and to accept without question, and to place under no restriction, 

 the products of another set of meat purveyors, is irrational and unjustifiable. 

 A good deal of this irregularity and danger to the public are now overcome and 

 conditions are being equalized so far as possible by the meat hygiene service of 

 the State Livestock Sanitary Board. 



It was evident that a very large part of the work that would fall upon the 

 agents of the State Livestock Sanitary Board in the meat hygiene service 

 would have to do with questions as to the healthfulness of animals and the 

 wholesomeness of their products. The diagnosis of disease, both in the living 

 animal and in the slaughtered carcass, are among the most important duties 

 of a meat inspector. Meat inspection has been called "applied pathology," and 

 it is necessary for a meat inspector to know the signs and significance of the 

 evidences of diseases of animals. It was realized that wherever a condemna- 

 tion of meat is made by a State agent the agent should be able fully to sus- 

 tain his action and to testify in court, if necessary, against expert evidence, 

 and to show the reason and the hygienic necessity for the action that he had 

 taken. The conditions governing the work of the meat inspectors are quite dif- 

 ferent from those governing the food inspector. The former has to decide by 

 his own knowledge, whether in a given case, material sliould be condemned or 

 passed. The food inspector, on the other hand, confines himself largely to the 

 collection of samples which are submitted to a chemist for examination and 

 decision. If condemnation is ordered, it is on the basis of the evidence of 

 the chemist. In this case the chemist is the real expert and the so-called food 

 inspector is an assistant or a collector of samples to the chemist. It appears, 

 therefore, that the meat inspector combines the functions of the so-called 

 food inspector and of the chemist to whom tiie samples are referred. Meat in- 

 spection, as a science, is taught only in veterinary colleges, and it is only 

 in such colleges that the pathology and symptomatology of the diseases of 

 animals as required by meat inspectors are taught. 



On these grounds, and following the precedent cf the LTnited States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, and of all other important meat hygiene services, it 

 was decided by the State Livestock Sanitary Board that the candidates for 

 appointment as agents in the meat hygiene service should be required to show 

 evidence of competency as veterinarians. Care was exercised to select only 

 such men as had special, expert knowledge of this work. The staff, as it is 

 now organized, consists of the following: 



A. O. Cawley, Milton, Northumberland county. 



H. R. Church, Luzerne, Luzerne county. 



G. M. Graybill, East Petersburg, Lancaster county. 



D. E. Hickman, West Chester. Chester county. 



George B. Johson, Franklin, Venango county. 



Philip K. Jones, Pittsburg, Allegheny county. 



C. C. McLean, Meadville. Crav.-ford county. 



T. E. Munce, Washington, Washington county. 



O. G. Noack, Reading, Berks county. 



J. H. Turner, Wellsboro, Tioga county. 



