No. 4.] REPORT OF CATTLE BUREAU. 153 



wealth, and it was supposed that Massachusetts had forever 

 abandoned the reckless and extravagant policy of making 

 perfectly wholesome food into fertilizer ; yet this condition of 

 affairs was returned to, it appears, by the passage of section 1 

 of chapter 329 of the Acts of 1908, known as the '" bob veal 

 law," which provides as follows: — 



Section 1. The sale, offer or exposure for sale, or delivery for 

 use as food, of the carcass, or any part or product thereof, of any 

 animal which has come to its death in any manner or by any means 

 otherwise than by slaughter or killing- while in a healthy condition, 

 or which at the time of its death is unfit by reason of disease, ex- 

 haustion, abuse, neglect or otherwise for use as food, or of any calf 

 weighing less than forty pounds when dressed, with head, feet, hide 

 and entrails removed, is hereby declared to be unlawful and pro- 

 hibited. Whoever sells or offers or exposes for sale or delivers or 

 causes or authorizes to be sold, offered or exposed for sale or de- 

 livered for use as food any such carcass or any part or product 

 thereof, shall be punished by fine of not more than two hundred 

 dollars or by imprisonment for not more than six months. 



In the controversy that arose last spring as to the meaning 

 of this section of the law, the Attorney-General's opinion was 

 sought, with the result that he gave the following opinion : — 



The laws and statutes of this Commonwealth do not permit meat 

 derived from the carcasses of cattle infected in any degree with 

 tuberculosis or with any other disease to be sold as food within this 

 Commonwealth. 



The result of this opinion was to nullify and abrogate the 

 rules and regulations of the Chief of the Cattle Bureau, ap- 

 proved by the Governor and Council, in conformity with the 

 rules and regulations of the United States Bureau of Animal 

 Industry for the inspection of meat for export and interstate 

 commerce. Just how the law was to prevent the sale in Massa- 

 chusetts of beef or pork from an animal killed in Chicago that 

 was not absolutely technically sound is not exactly clear. 



The result of this decision was that the following new sec- 

 tion was added to chapter 329, Acts of 1908, as follows: ■^- 



Section 8. This act shall not affect the provisions of section 

 seven of chapter ninety of the Revised Laws, as affected by section 



