156 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
It is not for us to dwell upon the advantages that result 
from such an appointment. Of this we may be sure, it would 
never have been made, had not the necessitv for it existed. 
That the public derive a benefit therefrom is indirectly 
shown bv the quantitv of unwholesome meat which finds its 
way into the London markets, principally the carcases of 
diseased animals, both cattle and sheep ; many tons being 
reported week after week, by Dr. Lethebv, as having been 
seized by the inspectors. Our readers may remember 
a prosecution which appeared in the daily papers during 
the month of February, when a salesman of Newgate 
Market was heavily fined by the presiding magistrate for 
unlawfully exposing for sale the carcases of five sheep 
which were alleged to be in a diseased state, and totally 
unfit for human food, and this has been followed by 
several similar instances. We would have transferred the 
reports of these cases to our pages, but for want of room. 
Our object is now, however, rather to show that such 
sheep, being affected with the disease called “rot,’ ; and very 
much emaciated, would not, as such, have been permitted 
to have been sold in the cattle-market under veterinary 
inspection. The meat-consuming population have then a 
fair guarantee of obtaining proper food from this source; 
but the supervision leads, as we have shown, to the slaughter¬ 
ing of diseased animals in the country, and forwarding them 
to other markets as “ dead meat.” These City prosecu¬ 
tions will do much to put a stop to this practice; but we 
may ask, without prejudice to existing regulations, whether 
the best persons have been chosen to fill the office of 
inspectors ? Would not Dr. Lethebv himself feel that he had 
the right kind of support in difficult cases, if the inspectors 
had received a medical education which especially fitted 
them to speak of the nature and consequences of diseases 
affecting cattle, sheep, or pigs? Veterinary surgeons we 
consider to be eminently fitted for this duty, and they alone 
should be appointed to these offices. Practice may do much 
in detecting alterations in the quality of the flesh of an 
animal, but practice conjoined with science will do a great 
deal more; and we do hope that, ere long, not only in 
London, but throughout the entire country, members of 
