U. S. VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
471 
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MEAT INSPECTION. 
By Olaf Schwaktzkopff. 
Gentlemen :—No occurrence in the history of the United States has had 
more significant relation to the veterinary profession of the country than the re¬ 
peated endeavors of the Legislatures of several States to make meat inspection 
laws. Although these State laws have proved inefficient and have not been sus^ 
tained, it is not because the principle of such laws is wrong, but because the 
sanitary principles involved have not been sufficiently comprehended and guarded. 
Still, the movement in this direction has awakened great public interest, especially 
among agriculturists. In consequence Congress has passed a bill providing for 
an inspection of meats for exportation into foreign countries. While this law is 
only one step in the right direction, it will, if carried out, benefit the stock 
raising farmer of this country; and will also advance the cause of the veterinary 
profession of the United States, a feature which probably was least thought of 
by most of our national legislators. 
Under these circumstances, then, it becomes us to use this occasion to dis¬ 
cuss the principles which should govern sanitary meat inspection laws both at 
home and abroad. 
In dealing with the subject I will not enter into the history of meat inspec¬ 
tion, but only remark that it is not at all a modern idea, as stated by some news¬ 
papers and agricultural journals. In ancient times, it was, of course, a religious 
rite, while it now belongs to sanitaiy science. Nor will I refer to the literature 
on the subject, which is quite comprehensive in some European languages. But 
I shall step at once into the proper theme and ask the following questions: 
I. Is meat inspection necessary, and is it a sanitary measure ? 
II. What meat shall be regarded as wholesome for human food, and what as 
unwholesome ? 
III. How shall meat inspection be carried out ? 
I. The history of medicine tells us emphatically that there exists an intimate 
relation between our health and our use of animal food. It is an established 
physiological fact that an albuminous diet gives the human organism greater 
energy. While thus wholesome meat may be regarded as of the greatest import¬ 
ance from the standpoint of national economy and also as one of those indirect 
civilizing powers, yet meat from diseased animals brings forth many and 
dreadful dangers to society. Not only may we become temporarily sick by eating 
flesh of animals which were suffering, for instance, from a disease accompanied 
by high fever, and through the meat acquire those more or less injurious animal 
parasites such as tape worms and hydatides of the lungs and liver; but even life 
may be directly menaced with danger from the use of trichinous pork or meat 
from tuberculous cattle or hogs, or from the most dangerous group of diseases 
in this direction, septicaemia and pyaemia. 
But the general public can have no sufficient knowledge of these facts ; it is 
impossible for the masses to acquire this particular knowledge in the other en¬ 
gagements of life. Individual self-protection seems impossible, consequently 
it falls upon the government, State or general, to provide a protection for our 
health and life alike in this direction, as is done in other matters of a sanitary 
