684 
LEONARD PEARSON. 
ness of these slaughter-houses is conducted so irregularly that 
it is not possible to properly control them without having al¬ 
most as many meat inspectors as slaughter-houses, and if the 
force were enlarged to these dimensions the sanitary conditions 
and the surroundings of the slaughter-houses would still be such 
as to seriously injure the wholesomeness and keeping qualities 
of much of the meat dressed in them. 
A further reason for a better system of meat inspection here 
is that there is a constant and growing demand for many parts 
of carcasses which are more frequently diseased than the flesh, 
and were formerly thrown away. Our ever-increasing foreign 
population ’consumes viscera for which there was no market a 
few years ago, and meat inspectors frequently find that such or¬ 
gans are diseased to an extent that renders them unwholesome, 
while the rest of the carcass can safely be sold. As a result of 
the fact that inspectors are not constantly present, a great many 
diseased carcasses are unquestionably sold and frequently with¬ 
out the knowledge of the butcher who handles them. His 
training is not sufficient to enable him to detect important 
symptoms and lesions. In some cases, however, he does detect 
them and remove them so, thoroughly that the suspicions of the 
meat inspector are not aroused. 
The conditions that prevail in Philadelphia are not unique. 
They exist in almost every city in this country, and it is largely 
on account of the multiplicity of slaughter-houses that thorough 
systems of meat inspections have not been more generally estab¬ 
lished. An adequate control of the meat supply of Philadelphia 
cannot be enforced without a great extension of the present 
force, or a concentration of the business of slaughtering. The 
latter plan is supported by the experience of all of the older 
civilized countries, and is to be recommended not only because 
it would facilitate the inspection of meat, but for several other 
reasons as well. It would do away with all of the small, poorly 
equipped, badly managed slaughter-houses which are in many 
cases nuisances in their respective neighborhoods. It would 
make it unnecessary to drive cattle through the streets, a prac- 
