SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
6 •^ 
cage, using strict antiseptic precautions, and feed him on suspected milk. 
At the same time we physicians and everybody believe that the dust in 
rooms that have been occupied by consumptives, and the dust on the 
street where they have expectorated is a means of spreading the disease, 
and the Board of Health believes that it is dangerous for consumptives to 
expectorate on the floors of public conveyances. We have not found a 
single case where an individual has contracted tuberculosis in that way. 
So long as we recognize these dangers it is our duty to avoid them, 
and so long as persons die from tuberculosis it is a veterinarian’s-and 
human physician’s duty to remove the causes, which means the prohibi¬ 
tion of the sale of meat and milk which is not healthy. 
You may think I am assuming too much when I say that you will 
have meat and milk inspection, and you may think so especially because 
I am not a member of Tammany Hall, but I repeat that you will have meat 
and milk inspection in this city carried out by veterinarians, and I say 
so because we can see this system now growing all over the world. It is 
a reform that is sure to come, and notwithstanding your experience here 
in New York, it is stated frequently that reforms never go backw^ards, 
and this is true of sanitary reforms to a greater extent than it is to po¬ 
litical. 
The value of meat inspection has been tested in the most advanced 
cities of Europe and it is growing each year more and more. This is not 
only true of Europe, but it is also true of the United States, for ten years 
ago there was not a veterinarian employed in this capacity, whereas now 
there are approximately about 150 veterinarians in the Federal Govern¬ 
ment. There are two in Pennsylvania, another soon to be appointed, 
and these three will be assisted by two or three laymen who will no 
doubt be replaced by veterinarians. 
I have no doubt that it will reach New York City and that when it 
comes it will find the surroundings congenial, and before long New York 
will have a thorough meat inspection carried out by the only men who 
can do work of this kind, carried out by veterinarians. 
Prof. R. W. Hickman, of the Bureau of Animal Industry, 
followed Dr. Pearson, in the following manner : 
Mr. President and Gejitlemeji :—I have greatly enjoyed and been very 
much interested in the paper read by Dr. Gill, the essayist of the even¬ 
ing, and likewise in listening to the remarks of the gentlemen who have 
followed him. 
I have a keen appreciation of the importance of the relation of veter¬ 
inarians to the public health as inspectors of meat and milk, and while 
I shall not occupy any more time in speaking of the diseases and con¬ 
ditions which render these animal food products unfit for human food, I 
shall direct what I have to say more particularly to the subject, and to 
the two means by which the qualifications of meat and milk inspectors 
are acquired. The two means alluded to will be manifest as I proceed. 
All things being equal, I think it will be admitted that the knowl¬ 
edge resulting from experience or contact with an object, especially if 
that object be a living creature, will be of a more practically valuable 
sort than if attained by promiscuous, general, or special reading. If this 
proposition is patent, so, likewise, must be the fact that the adaptability 
and the capabilities of the educated and trained veterinarian render his 
