470 
JOHN M. PARKER. 
This was a permissive act, simply providing that the Mayor and 
Aldermen of cities and the Selectmen of towns may annually 
appoint one or more persons, who may inspect all provisions and 
animals intended for slaughter. Undet this act, which was 
taken advantage of by the cities and towns only slightly, it was 
found to be impossible to organize any systematic inspection of 
the herds of cattle in the state, and in 1892 the law was so 
amended as to provide that the same authorities “ shall annu¬ 
ally in the month of April appoint one or more persons to be 
inspectors of provisions and of animals intended for slaughter, 
or kept for the production of milk.” Under this latter act, 
however, no penalty was provided for the failure of the cities 
and towns to make the appointments required by the act, and it 
was found necessary to again strengthen the law. Accordingly, 
in 1893 ^ penalty was provided for cities and towns failing to 
appoint inspectors as required by law, and, further, the in¬ 
spectors were, by this act and for the first time, brought under 
the partial control of the Cattle Commissioners, by giving the 
board the right to make appointments where cities or towns 
failed to do so, and the power to remove incompetent in¬ 
spectors. 
This latter act was approved May ,3, 1893, and immediately 
after its passage this board undertook to collect the names and 
addresses of the various inspectors ; to instruct them in their 
duties, in so far as they related to the matter of the suppression 
of contagious diseases among the domestic animals ; and to see 
that, so far as possible, animals intended for slaughter or kept 
for the production of milk were inspected as thoroughly as cir¬ 
cumstances would permit. 
The first attempt to collect the names and addresses of the 
various inspectors was begun on May 12, 1893. Up to about 
Oct. 15, 1893, only about one-half of the cities and towns in the 
Commonwealth had complied with this requirement. 
From this small beginning, and in the face of many dis¬ 
couragements, the organization of this corps of inspectors has 
been developed, until now (1895) all but four of the cities and 
