484 
W. L. WILLIAMS. 
able means for the prompt detection of the existence of con¬ 
tagious diseases among animals, indicates the location and 
extent of the infected area, and enables the government to 
institute elaborate study into their nature and causes, and the 
influence of climate, soil and other environments upon them, 
and to promptly apply remedies for their control or eradica¬ 
tion. 
In our opinion meat and milk inspection should be carried 
out primarily in the interests of the intended consumers of 
the food products, and not, as is too often the case, in the 
interest of the producer. 
It should constantly be remembered, however, that the 
unwarranted condemnation of unhealthful animal food, or that 
which could economiqally be rendered sanitary, is a waste of 
food resources which no nation should tolerate, since by this 
waste the price of meat is advanced proportionately, and thus 
rendered less and less available as a food to those who stand 
in greatest need of it—the poorer laboring classes. 
The early Jewish meat inspection was carried out with 
especial reference to Jewish consumers, and strictly forbade 
the use of the flesh of diseased animals as food for their own 
nation, although it would appear from the Mosaic law that 
such diseased flesh could be sold to other nations, if they 
desired to buy. Their meat inspection partook of the char¬ 
acter of a religious rite, founded, doubtless, on sanitary reasons 
well known to the Jewish priests. The religious phase of this 
inspection was probably highly essential to effectiveness, since 
religious reverence and awe constitute the main source of 
power in ecclesiastical governments. If an animal was con¬ 
demned on account of tuberculosis, the greed of the owner 
could in no way be so effectually controlled and silenced as 
by the invocation of ecclesiastical law. At the same time, 
under the tribal relations of the Jews, he could probably evade 
the use of a part of the deceased animal for his own food, 
only with difficulty. 
Among the great mass of the human family, where reli¬ 
gious sentiment fails to enter into the question of human food, 
the consumer has slaughtered and inspected the animals in- 
