MEAT INSPECTION. 
483 
of earnest investigators, until we now have abundant promise 
that meat and milk inspection will soon occupy a highly hon- 
Drable place in the front rank of the sciences holding a vital 
relation to human life, health and happiness. 
Meat inspection is almost as old as human history and has 
3een fundamentally influenced by religious, social, political 
md commercial usages. The early Jews enacted meat inspec¬ 
tion laws upon an unusually high sanitary plane and enforced 
hem under the sanction of religion and with all the rigidity 
ind zeal of a sacred religious rite. The Jewish meat inspec- 
ion ordinances apparently rest upon the Mosaic law, and now, 
:enturies after the tables of stone have vanished from the 
ight of man, these meat inspection laws still seem as indelibly 
tamped on the mind of the orthodox Jew as they were dur 
ng the days of Moses, and the civilized world looks with 
everence upon the ancient customs, and heartily wishes that 
ssentially the same laws could be adopted universally and 
dministered as faithfully and effectually as they were thirty 
enturies ago. 
The necessity for meat inspection is so apparent and well 
nown to intelligent people that your committee scarcely feel 
warranted in dwelling, even briefly, upon this phase of the 
uestion. Recent study in connection with the so-called con- 
igious and infectious diseases have demonstrated apparently 
eyond all chance of doubt that they are each due solely to 
Decial living organisms. The contagious diseases of man 
ad animals are, in many cases, identical and intercommuni- 
ible, either by contact or by ingestion of parts of the deceased 
□dy by the healthy animal, and it is now a well recognized 
ict, unqualifiedly endorsed by all who are versed in either 
liman or veterinary medicine, that the ingestion of deceased 
iieat and milk is the direct cause of much disease and death 
the human family. The practically universal use of meat and 
ilk as human food in all civilized countries renders the ques- 
on of their freedom from disease of pressing import to the 
salth of the nation. 
Meat inspection possesses great importance also in rela- 
on to national economy, as it affords the best and most avail- 
