866 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
It is all very well to say we condemn everything that is not 
sound, and ship to Germany only strictly healthy meat, when 
the carcasses condemned at home are turned loose at our local 
markets and are considered good enough for our own people. I 
never have seen so much poor meat in my life than in the 
Chicago butcher shops, and I hope to see the day when the 
United States inspection can be enforced all over the country to 
rectify these evils. 
I fear the good doctor is under self-delusion, when he 
believes that the people of Germany eat unsound meat. What 
he calls facts are merely allegations. True, the German veteri¬ 
narians have assumed a different standpoint than that of Dr. 
Salmon, and this by hard experience and by the decision of 
courts. They have to do justice to both consumers and produ¬ 
cers of meat, wanton destruction having been condemned. 
There is plenty of sound meat in Germany, and that which is 
not strictly sound is made sound by boiling and sterilizing, and 
sold as such, in small pieces, to the poor people. Enormous 
quantities are condemned and utilized for fertilizers, etc. Every¬ 
thing, therefore, is made useful. 
While seemingly judicious, the doctor is at present “ rubbing 
it in hard to the Germans.” I can understand his irritation from 
the international difficulties, but that will all go over. The vet¬ 
erinary profession of America owes much to England and France 
in educational matters, but the Bureau of Animal Industry owes 
its methods of scientific work entirely to German science. This 
will go down as history, and is being recognized already by neu¬ 
tral observers. In the Veterinary Journal, London, of January, 
1895, page 58, I notice the following in a review of Dr. Theo¬ 
bald Smith’s bulletin on investigation concerning infectious swine 
diseases : “ The report contains evidence of much good work 
with an elaboration of details almost German in its extent and 
accuracy.” I should like Dr. Salmon to assume a just attitude 
toward the Germans. If he will do so, they will return the com¬ 
pliment. Their slow logic may appear tiresome to the vivid 
Americans, but they will ultimately set things right. 
