SLAUGHTER-HOUSE INSPECTION. 
533 
consuming public. It will be observed .that popular and per¬ 
sonal prejudices play quite an important role in this connection. 
■ Persons not accustomed to seeing animals slaughtered and the 
^parts or organs prepared for food, are often disgusted with many 
conditions and products, which are perfectly wholesome ; and 
others, who do this work or constantly see it done, become ac¬ 
customed to and consider wholesome many conditions of flesh 
which may be decidedly harmful or loathsome to the general 
public. The public should be properly protected from the ig¬ 
norance or rapacity of the butcher, and the owner or slaughterer 
of animals be protected from the ignorant prejudices of the public. 
Examinations made before slaughter are highly important. 
Considerable enlargements of any of the tissues about the head, 
neck and limbs are easily discernible ; gangrenous wounds and 
skin diseases will be noticed, and the sick or bruised animal 
which gets out to one side by itself, or lies down while the 
others stand or walk about, will not be overlooked ; also the 
class known as “ downers,” or cripples, which cannot or will not 
walk to the slaughter house, may be seen. Special attention 
should be given to such animals during the post-mortem in¬ 
spection, for the wily butcher knows how to skillfully cut away 
evidences of disease while removing the skin, limbs and head. 
If the slaughtering establishment be a small one, and the 
examiner has abundant time to leisurely watch the entire pro¬ 
cess of slaughter, no abnormal or diseased condition need escape 
his notice, but in large abattoirs, where loo, 200 or even 500 
animals are slaughtered per hour, the process of dressing is 
done in parts, at several points along the journey of the carcass 
from the killing bed to the refrigerator. The head, feet and 
visceral organs are quickly removed to another part of the es¬ 
tablishment, so the evidence of disease must be seen quickly, 
if at all, and the carcass of which they were a part be identifled. 
Still greater acumen must be exercised in small abattoirs where 
the carcasses are dressed and viscera set aside to be examined at 
the convenience of the inspector. 
During the transportation of cattle by railroads to the mar- 
