EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
157 
the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons will be appointed 
the inspectors of the markets for the sale of meat, alive or 
dead. Then, and not till then, will the nefarious practices 
which now T obtain be properly kept in check, and the public 
health be duly cared for. 
«/ 
We extract the following remarks on this subject from 
The Lancet: 
<£ We believe that it will no longer be necessary to repeat, as 
we have often done, the statement of the vast extent and de¬ 
leterious influence of the infamous traffic in diseased meat in 
London, merely with the view of keeping this great abuse 
fresh in the minds of the profession, and preventing it from 
becoming permanent by neglect and oblivion. Thanks to the 
lively sense which the Sewers Committee of the Corporation 
of London entertain of their duties as guardians of the public 
health, and to the intelligent activity of their officer of health, 
active measures are being taken for putting an end to this 
dangerous and filthy trade. Week after week we have read 
of the seizure of so many thousand pounds of diseased meat, 
slaughtered for the consumption of the poor. Medical officers 
of health know well enough that the amount seized is but a 
fraction of the quantity exposed for sale, and actually con¬ 
sumed by the poor, who are tempted by the lowness of its 
price. Henceforth the names of the willing vendors, when 
detected, and of the purveyors of this unhealthy and disgust¬ 
ing food, will be published, and, where possible, proceedings 
will be taken to punish them. The public exposure will in 
itself be a severe punishment, and it may be hoped that the 
penalties of the law will be rigorously enforced. We have 
already expressed our fear that the present machinery is in¬ 
sufficient for the complete detection of those who are culpably 
involved in this trade. Unquestionably the most guilty per¬ 
sons are those who wilfully and designedly slaughter and 
send to market meat which they know to be unfit for human 
food. The rigid inspection of slaughter-houses and markets 
will be insufficient to baffle the enterprise and ingenuity of 
those who are concerned in this proceeding. They well know 
how to forward their dangerous wares direct to the retailers 
without filtering them through the larger central markets, 
and, by splitting up the localities of sale, to render efficient in¬ 
spection and general detection practically impossible. There 
is reason to believe that the amount seized bears no propor¬ 
tion to the quantity of diseased meat actually sold and con¬ 
sumed. We know of no more effective plan of overcoming 
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