RELATION OF VETERINARY PRACTITIONER TO FOOD INSPECTION. 
569 
Year Book of the United States Department of Agriculture: 
“ The greatest source of danger with regard to the meat supply 
of the country comes from the meat which is not subject to in¬ 
spection. The Government inspection is applied only to such 
meats as are produced by persons or establishments doing inter¬ 
state or export business and covers but a little more than half of 
the country’s meat supply. The remainder must be looked after 
by state and municipal authorities, and it is gratifying that there 
is a general awakening to the need for local inspection. Inspec¬ 
tion is already being carried on by many cities and a few states, 
and in others steps are being taken to establish an efficient in¬ 
spection system.” 
The law which regulates the Federal inspection of meats is 
no broader in its scope than is that respecting the supervision of 
other foods. Much more than half of all food inspection must 
always, because of constitutional Federal restrictions in intra¬ 
state commerce and trade, be done by municipal and state au¬ 
thority, and because of inability to conserve the time and best 
efforts of inspectors, would require an inspection force, on meats 
alone, of probably ten or twenty times the number of men em¬ 
ployed in the Government service in the same capacity. 
Aside from consideration of export meats there is now a 
greater need for state and municipal inspection of meats than 
there is for Federal inspection, and this need is fast crystalizing 
into a demand. We are credibly informed that diseased and 
suspicious animals are not sent to abattoirs having Federal in¬ 
spection, but on the contrary are sold to small establishments 
that have not inspection and where condemnations are almost un¬ 
heard of. If suspicious animals are not turned back sometimes 
from these large establishments and find their way to slaughter 
houses where conditions are easier, it guarantees a standard of 
morals in this business that is far above the average of frail 
human nature. 
I feel confident, then, that I am not far astray when I assume 
that, while there is Federal inspection of a little over half of all 
animals slaughtered for food, there is probably eighty per cent. 
