SLAUGHTER-HOUSE INSPECTION. 
531 
SLAUGHTER-HOUSE INSPECTION. 
By S. Stewart, M. D. V. S., Kansas City, Kansas. 
A Paper read before the 35th annual meeting of the U. S. V. M. A. at Omaha, Neb., 
Sept. 6-8th, 1898. 
The establishment of slaughter-house ‘inspection by the 
government at the large slaughtering establishments, doing a 
foreign and interstate business, has served to attract attention 
to the necessity for careful inspection at all slaughter houses 
supplying cities and towns with animal food products. In order 
that slaughter-house inspection may be all that public health 
requires that it should be, several conditions must be harmoni¬ 
ously conjoined. There must be legal authority to conduct in¬ 
spection and enable the inspector to enforce necessary regula¬ 
tions. There must be a substantial moral support on part of 
the public, both general and official. The inspector must be 
thoroughly competent. 
If inspection be established under the authority of a local or 
State Board of Health, the power for enforcement of its rules is 
usually ample and easily applied. When the authority for in¬ 
spection is through municipal ordinance, political influence is a 
forceful factor, often rendering uncertain the official position of 
the inspector, and not infrequently determining a vacillating and 
biased service, with laxness where financial or political force is 
applied. 
If inspection be intelligently and honestly conducted, and 
the public kept informed as to the wdrk done through official 
reports, public sentiment will lend strong moral support to this 
Kind of sanitary service. No one thing will create stronger 
public approval and more general satisfaction than the assurance 
that the food upon the table is not tainted with disease. 
The qualifications of the inspector for the duties of his office 
are important factors in the establishment and maintenance of a 
service which fully protects the public and yet does justice to 
the owner's of animals slaughtered. He should possess a 
thorough knowledge of the anatomy of domestic animals and 
have a good working knowledge of comparative pathology. He 
