VALUE OF VETERINARY SCIENCE. 207 



lation.s as these might clash with our ideas of personal 

 liberty ; but when we view them at a safe distance, we can- 

 not deny their wisdom. Department and district veterina- 

 rians are appointed from general practitioners, and they 

 practice their profession when governmental duties do not 

 call upon them. Besides the officials, there are a number 

 known as " frontier veterinarians," whose duty it is to pro- 

 tect the country from the invasion of animal plagues. This 

 is their sole employment. For this they get a salary, and 

 in case of need carry out any regulations necessary to pro- 

 tect animals of the Empire from attacks from abroad. As a 

 protection to the public health, veterinarians are employed 

 at all the large abattoirs to examine the meat of animals 

 killed for food, the flesh of pigs with trichinae, measley 

 beef and pork, and the meat of animals badly diseased with 

 tuberculosis is all condemned, and sent to the renderers as 

 unfit for human consumption. Beef which is slightly tuber- 

 culous is marked in such a way that it is sold as an inferior 

 article at a low price, to be thoroughly cooked before eaten. 

 These regulations governing the inspection of meat are 

 more important in Germany than among ourselves, because 

 the people there consume large quantities of ham and 

 sausage without any cooking whatever ; while we, on the 

 contrary, generally subject our meat to the influence of suf- 

 ficient heat to destroy disease germs and parasites. 



Careful records are kept at these slaughter-houses of the 

 number of animals destroyed, the number diseased, what 

 the disease was, and the age of the diseased beast, making a 

 valuable addition to the statistics of the country. In Ger- 

 many, no one can practice veterinary medicine unless a 

 graduate of one of the German schools, under a severe 

 penalty. In France, as in Germany, the veterinary schools 

 and veterinary sanitary regulations are in charge of the 

 Minister of Agriculture, and are in many respects similar. 



In the former country much has been accomplished in 

 preventing many of the contagious animal diseases by pro- 

 tective inoculation. The credit of this work belongs to M. 

 Louis Pasteur, the greatest scientist in this particular line 

 that the world has as 3'et seen. Although a chemist by 

 education, his work is so closely connected with the value 



