SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
695 
It seems a practical impossibility for an inspector to recog¬ 
nize acute kidney affections on killing floors of any of our large 
abattoirs. Hogs are rushed along at the rate of several hnndred 
an hour and in but few of them is the kidney exposed until far 
past the inspector, when, if he sees a detached kidney it would 
be difficult to find the carcass from which it was removed. 
Acute nephritis is very rarely seen except in cases of cholera, 
when other S3^mpeoms would first attract attention. 
The kidneys of all our food producing animals are covered 
with fat, which is not lemoved in the dressed carcass except in 
the case of the pig. Under these conditions how is an inspector 
to recognize such affections as acute nephritis unless the ante¬ 
mortem symptoms have aroused suspicions ? 
I have never, in my experience, seen a case. The nasal test 
for uriniverous odors is impractical, as no one has time to get 
close enough to each carcass to do this. 
These cystic kidneys are frequently seen, and where the 
urine has been much obstructed I would favor condemnation. 
It seems that the color of the fat of beef cattle is rather due 
to the diet than to other things. All of you have noticed the 
effect of food upon the color of butter fat. Why should it not 
have the same effect on the interstitial fat? At one Ume I gave 
considerable thought to this subject and some investigation. It 
was thought the breed might have something to do with it. 
This theSry was followed until found fallible. It was noticed 
that a bunch of cattle fed in the same lot would bear f wonder¬ 
ful uniformity in color, some herds being an old gold yellow, 
others a dirty mixture of yellow red, and still others that 
fill waxy white color so much sought by the packers. Atten¬ 
tion was then turned to the food, and from a study of the ingesta 
at post-mortem I have reason to believe the beautiful white 
color may come from fattening on white corn and alfalfa hay, 
and that yellow corn and timothy and clover hay may grow 
yellow fat. This question of color is quite an important factor 
to both packer and stockman. ^ .^11 
The packers now resort to a bleaching process in the coo ers 
to improve the color of carcasses and if they coiild buy on foot 
cattle which could be relied upon to dress out a beautiful white, 
thev would command a better price. j . 
The author makes use of the term “ cold abscess, and states 
they are found in all parts of the body. From the sweeping 
manner in which the term is used we can hardly infer that he 
means tubercular abscesses, but rather abscesses which exist 
