UNITED STATES MEAT INSPECTION. 
39 
spection was an untrustworthy measure against trichinosis. This is 
because the inspection in most cases is only superficially carried out 
on a few muscles by inexperienced and not even careful persons.” 
Dr. Stiiler says (Zeitschr. f. Medicinal-Beamte, 1889, pp. 
265) : “Let us consider first the class of people from which the 
trichina inspectors are taken. In our Kreise, there were accord¬ 
ing to official statistics for 1887, 168 official microscopists to ex¬ 
amine 24,487 swine. Of this number 58 belonged to the better 
classes or to trade, in which nimble fingers are necessary, or to 
the female sex ; 35 belonged to the heavier trades, while 58 
belonged to trades in which the heaviest work must be per¬ 
formed. Of 17 no details could be obtained. I have, myself, 
educated 50 of these persons as inspectors, and I know, there¬ 
fore, from experience how difficult it is to teach the clumsy fin¬ 
gers of a stone-layer or of a blacksmith how to make a prepar¬ 
ation and how to use the microscope ; and also how hard it is 
to drum into these heads, unaccustomed to study as they have 
been for years, the absolutely necessary instruction. It required 
an inconceivable amount of patience.” 
In the Amtshauptmannschaft, Dresden, a microscopist was 
obliged to resign because he was not able to find a single tri¬ 
china in a preparation which contained them. This was because 
his microscope was so dirty that it was possible to scrape off 
crusts with a knife. The lenses were all smeared and his book¬ 
keeping was grossly careless. (XXIII Jahresbericht ii. d. Medi- 
cinalwesen in Konigreiche Sachsen, 1891-1892, p. 91.) 
In the Bezirk of Oschatz, the microscopes were for the 
greater part in good condition ; some of them were dirty. In 
one case the adjustment screw was so rusty, the mirror so dirty 
and the lenses so obscured by dirt and fat that the instrument 
was totally useless. (XII Jarhesbericht, u. s. w. Sachsen 1890- 
1891, p.127.) 
It was stated that the necessity of the rule requiring an in¬ 
spection of the microscopes was shown by the fact that in Quer- 
furter Kreise, of 124 instruments, 7 were so completely useless 
that it was impossible to find trichina with them. In Merseburg 
