MUNICIPAL HYGIENE 651 



is healthy ; beyond that we should not attempt to go. If 

 in the judgment of the medical officer it is unfit for human 

 consumption, that is his side of the question on which we 

 may be permitted to differ in private but not officially, for 

 our interference with his work would be as intolerable as 

 his with ours. Further, it is quite possible that meat 

 passed as healthy before leaving the abattoir, may be unfit 

 for consumption a few days later. 



Assuming the public abattoir system were generally 

 established, the veterinary voice should not be heard out- 

 side the abattoir, for the matter then belongs to the medical 

 officer ; while neither during the life of the animal, nor 

 during the abattoir inspection, should the voice of the 

 medical officer be heard inside. 



In no other way is it possible to avoid friction, or attempts 

 at dual control. We must be as paramount where the 

 animal is concerned, as the medical officer is where man is 

 concerned. We are both in our distinct spheres guardians 

 of the public health. 



Many of the troubles arising from meat inspection are 

 due to want of uniformity in rejection. In Belfast and 

 Dublin medical inspection of tuberculous meat drove the 

 butchers to private slaughter-houses. In Islington and 

 Manchester seizure was only adopted for generalized 

 tuberculosis, and at both these places skilled veterinary 

 opinion was found to be in conformity with common- 

 sense, and the subsequent opinion of the Tuberculosis 

 Commission. 



All engaged in the cattle and butchering trade bitterly 

 complain of this want of uniformity, which is defeat- 

 ing its own ends, and driving from public abattoirs the 

 very people whose opposition to anything new it is most 

 undesirable should be intensified by unfair treatment. It 

 is common-sense for these traders to ask for a recognised 

 standard to be established and universally maintained, so 

 that the absurdity of meat being passed by one inspector 

 and rejected by another should not be able to occur. 



As the Commission expressed it : ' Chaos is the only 



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