SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
78 ^ 
fare sumptuously every day, consume meat more largely than 
any nation, the per capita being greater. Australia may exceed 
ours, but that is not at all certain. The law of supply and de¬ 
mand is inexorable as fate, and the demand for meats and dairy 
products is shown in the multiplication of plants all over the 
country for the slaughter and sale of animals for food. The 
evolution of the milk business from the day of small things to 
its present colossal proportions is in line with the commercial 
law of supply and demand. 
Here now we have two of the most important problems be¬ 
fore us—meat and milk inspection. The necessity of these 
products for the maintenance of health and vigor is admitted by 
all. How can the end be attained of perfect inspection ? In a 
measure the public is protected from diseased meats by federal 
meat inspection. By this I mean that all meats that bear the 
seal of the inspection service of the B. A. I. are wholesome and 
in so far as they are used they are as near perfection as can 
be attained. But we must remember this service extends only 
to those establishments that do an interstate and foreign trade. 
Fortunately these supply meat dealers all over the country 
with their products, and diseased and unwholesome meats are 
not permitted to reach the public but consigned to the fertilizer 
tank and destroyed as articles of food. Those slaughter houses 
in almost every municipality, numbering from one to a dozen, 
that are owned by butchers who buy their stock for slaughter 
wherever they choose are beyond the reach of the federal author¬ 
ity. State and municipal law comes in to control if any law 
exists. These places elsewhere have been visited by the writer 
and the unspeakable filth and lack of all cleanliness points them 
out as sources of disease and a standing menace to the health of 
consumers of meats slaughtered there, without consideration of 
the class of animals killed. It is true there are exceptions to 
the rule, but they are few and far between. Let us consider 
briefly the situation. If any adequate reasons evei existed for 
federal meat inspection the same reasons are of equal force as 
applying to state and municipal inspection. Here we have 
presented to us the wise, thorough and exacting federal inspec¬ 
tion and the open door of absence of sufflcient state and muni¬ 
cipal law through which the public receive the uninspected 
products of individual butchers. That a major part of such 
product is free from disease no one can deny, but there is ab¬ 
solutely no protection against diseased meats going on sale from 
them. 
