CORRESPONDENCE 
865 
whatever. I believe in fairness, and I should censure the report 
O: che “ high German official, who reported only two micro¬ 
scopes in use at the Chicago station, as unfair and contrary to 
my observation. F rom what I have seen of this service, I have 
always considered it as well performed, and have repeatedly so 
informed my friends in Germany. But while this report and the 
remarks of the gentleman were unjust, Dr. Salmon’s angry reply, 
that “ a certain physician told him that he found the microscopes 
at the Berlin abattoir, so covered with dust that he could not 
see through them,” was just as unfair. I confess that I person¬ 
ally felt very much hurt by this remark, having been employed 
myself ior several years at the Berlin abattoir, an institution of 
which I have always been proud, and which is being regarded 
as a model of sanitary science and a triumph of that branch of 
veterinary medicine. But not wishing to make matters worse, I 
kept silent, explaining this remarkable discovery to myself by 
the characteristic hurry with which the average American tourist 
is running through schools, and institutions of all kinds. 
The doctor says in his letter that it has afforded him ex¬ 
quisite pleasure to point to the fact, that in spite of the elaborate 
inspection system in Germany it neither prevents trichinosis nor 
condemns carcasses of diseased animals, such as actimycosis, 
tuberculosis, pleuro-pneumonia, etc., which if an inspector passed 
in this country, would cost him his position. Is not this posi¬ 
tion too lofty, Dr. Salmon ? 
While the United States Meat Inspection owes its origin to 
the German law, it can well afford to differ in the conception of 
what is sound and unsound flesh as long as the people of the 
United States pay for everything. This little meat inspection of 
ours is merely for a show, whereas Germany’s system is for a 
general purpose ; ours is to help along a commercial under¬ 
taking of a certain part of our population, theirs is for the bene¬ 
fit of a whole nation of 55,000,000 people; ours is a neat little 
branch of a government department; theirs is a law in itsself, and 
a gigantic system, with a thousand branches running through 
the whole country. 
