184 
PIERRE A. FISH. 
question of eating healthy young tissue or diseased older tissue, 
there should be but one answer. According to the late Dr. Pear¬ 
son, the Federal government spent $3,000,000 in 1907 for meat 
inspection. At the present time the amount is probably not less 
than that sum. If the people of this country contribute the above 
amount, then New York State, with about one-tenth of the total 
population, contributes $300,000 for this purpose, and only about 
one-half of the meat consumed is thus inspected by the Federal 
government. The half that is not inspected probably needs the 
inspection more than the half that is. Municipal or local inspec¬ 
tion should by all means supplement that of the government. 
The reduction of the killing age of beef has been referred to. 
Why not extend it to veal? As a first step in the conservation 
of the meat supply it would appear desirable to reduce the mar¬ 
ketable age of bob veal to three weeks, as already sanctioned by 
the government and the State of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 
There should be uniformity in the various States having laws 
upon this subject. The reduction of 25% in the age limit would 
check a large amount of waste in those States which require an 
age of four weeks or more. Under the present arrangement 
various absurd conditions may arise. A healthy calf three weeks 
of age is legally fit for food in the State of Pennsylvania; if car¬ 
ried across an invisible line into the State of New York it is 
condemned as unwholesome. W'hat miraculous physiological 
changes must have occurred in the tissues of the animal while 
crossing the line. Natural law is apparently subsidiary to State 
law. 
In time, as the conservation of the meat supply becomes more 
imperative, the age may be reduced to one or two weeks, as in the 
case of the greater portion of Germany. Certainly the Germans 
may be regarded as holding their own in health and stamina, al¬ 
though they consume a large amount of what would be classed 
in this country as bob veal. 
Another step in checking this waste and safeguarding the 
supply would be to legalize the sale of bob veal as such. To 
substitute it for mature veal would be illegal, but since there is 
