474 
TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING 
and hogs are inspected. As they are driven on the scales they are counted, and 
again as the gates are opened and they troop off. The inspector stands up on the 
fence and if he sees a hog which does not wiggle about as though he felt tip¬ 
top, he is singled-out and rejected. This is how animals whose flesh is intended 
for human food, are inspected under the new law.” 
It does not need any comment on our part to show the absurdity of such 
inspection. But it works injury to the public, who .believes it is now 
protected from diseased meat and that no change of such law is needed. The 
butcher and stock dealer rather favor such inspection, as it does not cause them 
any loss or inconvenience. But we meet with the most vigorous opposition 
on the part of these very men when we declare the necessity of inspecting the 
slaughter house and the process of slaughtering and dressing. This they re¬ 
gard as an encroachment upon their private affairs. We may go all over the 
country and we will find that entrance into the slaughter house is not usually 
allowed, and we should not blame the butcher for this, for the slaughter house 
is his sanctum sanctorum. Here he polishes his meat and makes the most of * 
those manipulations which prepare the meat for the store. While it does not 
necessarily follow that anything wrong is done, and while I am personally con¬ 
vinced from years of official intercourse with butchers that in the main they are 
honest men, still there are some of them who are not so honest and who will use 
without scruple diseased meat even if they know it to be dangerous. In the 
slaughter house, then, is just the place for the sanitarian to enter into a careful 
inspection ; here he may often detect numerous pathological conditions which he 
never could have found in the living animal. 
But even this is not the ultimatum of inspection; to accomplish our full 
purpose, we have to follow the meat into the store and direct such arrangements 
for its handling and storage as may be demanded by hygienic precaution, and 
especially in seasons favorable to the development of micro-organism. To do 
this, and to do it efficiently, we need such laws as will recognize and meet the 
emergencies just mentioned. While there must necessarily be left a certain lib¬ 
erty as to the decision of the sanitary officer, it is desirable that he have, as a 
basis for his action, a well defined law which can be understood alike by him 
and the butcher and the stock dealer. Such law is not only essential for the 
execution of meat inspection, but it will also save the butcher and the sanitary 
officer needless dispute and misunderstanding. The more elaborate such law is 
formulated, the better it will work. It must define in unmistakable terms the 
duties of the sanitary officer and the butcher. And above all, such law needs the 
advice of scientists, as well as of the lawyer. It is one of our foremost duties to 
. watch the development of these new laws, to instruct the public about the proper 
principles involved, and to use such professional influence upon legislators as to 
produce an efficient law. If this is done quietly, but persistently, we cannot 
fail to produce much good. 
The question for us to consider now is, where can meat inspection be car¬ 
ried out ? Whoever has had the chance of visiting a slaughter house, such as 
are found scattered all over the land in city or country, must have felt disgusted 
at the prevalent condition of such places. Not to speak of the total absence of 
any hygienic arrangements, the unclean manner in which they are kept makes 
