SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
683 
center of disease is thereby established the infective substance of which is 
brought to the surface through the workings of worms and rats and other species 
of like vermin. As the only effectual method of destroying the germ of hog 
cholera is by fire, it is evident that no choice should be allowed, and the law 
should be explicit on this point. 
Hog cholera is an infectious disease, the primary symptoms of which are often 
much varied and complicated. It is therefore advisable that the law should pro¬ 
vide stringent quarantine regulations, which should be maintained and carried 
out by the local Boards of Health under the direction of the State Veterinarian, 
and that the carcasses of all animals which have died from the effects of the dis¬ 
ease should be destroyed by lire without removal from the premises. 
One of the chief factors by which the disease has been spread to such an 
alarming extent is the existence of the so-called dead hog rendering establish¬ 
ments, one or more of which may be found in almost every county in the State; 
these under the present state of affairs are pest houses of the most virulent type, 
and are owned and maintained for the most part by the lowest and most un¬ 
scrupulous class of men, who appreciate the fact that the law as it now stands is 
unable to reach them, and that they can therefore carry on their loathsome voca-* 
tion with comparatively little, if any, interruption. 
It would also be advisable for obvious reasons to prohibit all traffic in dead 
animals (except such as are slaughtered) without a permit from the local Board 
of Health, whose duty it should be to satisfactorily ascertain that no contagious 
or infectious disease had existed, and that the carcass was not in an advanced 
stage of decomposition. 
THE MEAT INSPECTION LAW. 
The time has now arrived when the people of the United States look upon 
the veterinarian of to-day as a sanitarian, and have resolved through the action 
of Congress to avail themselves of the services of this rapidly advancing branch 
of science. 
The first intimation of this intention was manifested by the enactment of a 
meat inspection law, passed by the Fifty-first Congress of the United States. 
This affords an immense field for scientific research, as well as being a most im¬ 
portant sanitary precaution. Under the provisions of this law a thorough system 
of meat and dairy inspection may be instituted in every county in this State. 
It is therefore pre-eminently the duty of all local Boards of Health to at 
once make such regulations as will effectually prevent the sale and consumption 
of diseased meats and dairy products, and thereby protect the public from this 
great source of danger to human life. 
Let us therefore, as veterinarians and citizens of Iowa, at once assume the 
aggressive in this matter, joining hand in hand with our sister profession, 
constituting ourselves the champions and advocates of sanitary food regu¬ 
lations. 
Let every member of this Association avail himself of the daily opportuni¬ 
ties afforded him within his own community to engender among his fellow citi¬ 
zens a true knowledge and understanding of the dangers which they continually 
incur, from eating food which is unfit for human consumption. 
