376 
NEWS AND ITEMS. 
nations under the new law have been more than fifty per cent, 
greater than under the old law. It is evident from the state¬ 
ments so far made by Mrs. Crane before the committee that 
she does not understand many things about the inspection sys¬ 
tem and the regulations, and anything that she does not under¬ 
stand she suspects of being crooked. She has gone out of her 
way to place a sinister construction upon perfectly innocent 
things. So far she has advanced nothing that cannot be made 
perfectly plain by the Bureau when the time comes to present 
its side of the case. 
“ The so-called secret instructions to Bureau employees were 
issued as a confidential publication only during 1907 and 1908. 
For three and a half years these announcements have been fur¬ 
nished not only to the packers but to State officials, stockmen 
and the press. The object of issuing confidential instructions 
during the period that these announcements were regarded as 
confidential was not to nullify the law and regulations in the 
interests of the packers, but rather to keep the packers from 
knowing of the steps that were being taken to maintain sur¬ 
veillance over their operations. 
MEAT INSPECTION AND TUBERCULOSIS. 
The Government meat inspection service has been criticised 
for passing for food purposes the meat of animals that are 
slightly affected with localized tuberculosis. It is sometimes 
charged that diseased meat is passed for food. 
“ The only foundation for such statements,” says Dr. Mel¬ 
vin, Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, “ is that the 
healthy and wholesome meat of an animal affected slightly and 
locally with some disease is passed, after the affected portion 
has been removed and condemned. The meat or flesh may not 
be affected in any particular, the disease being usually confined 
to certain glands or organs. The diseased portion is condemned; 
only the healthy portion is passed for food. 
“ This procedure is justified and sustained by the highest 
scientific authorities not only in the United States but in all 
countries having an efficient meat inspection. Objections to it 
usually come from those who have not made a study of compar¬ 
ative pathology and who are not qualified to pass upon the ques¬ 
tions involved, and sometimes they come from those who op- 
