THE FUTURE OF THE VETERINARY PROFESSION. 
9 
it from an acquaintance, its wholesome character could be read¬ 
ily determined. When animals for slaughter were driven on 
* 
foot from country to city they were freely open to observation. 
With the growth of cities and specialization of industries in 
rural districts meat and dairy products were largely procured in « 
distant parts of the country from unknown producers and trans¬ 
ported rapidly in stock or refrigerator cars in a manner tending 
to cover both source and character, conditions highly condu¬ 
cive to fraud. Almost any practitioner in a meat-producing or 
dairying district can recall the disappearance of fatally diseased 
animals, which have evidently gone clandestinely to city or vill¬ 
age market for human food. The Mosaic law (Deut. XIV. 21) 
interdicted the use of diseased meat by the Jews but permitted 
them to sell it to strangers or aliens. Our national meat in¬ 
spection protects the alien and the stranger in a foreign state, 
and confines the use of diseased meats to the localities or com¬ 
munities producing them. Under our form of government the 
nation ceases its control at inter-state and inter-national food 
traffic and leaves each state or municipality to control its own 
food supply. 
Modern advances in our knowledge of disease has engraved 
upon the mind of civilized man as deeply and indelibly as the 
law of Moses upon the tables of stone the necessity for care in 
the selection of meat and milk for human food. The laws of 
health are as divine to-day as when Moses received them on Mt. 
Sinai. 
The future of our profession in relation to meat and milk 
inspection is as plain as it is inevitable. The national inspec¬ 
tion will be increased and strengthened, and states and munici¬ 
palities will be compelled to introduce systematic inspection in 
harmony with the needs of a civilized people. 
Early in history efforts were made to learn the nature and 
stay the devastation of serious animal plagues which so often 
brought commercial ruin and loss of meat supply to and imper¬ 
illed the health of individuals and communities and embar¬ 
rassed the finances of nations. They rarely commit such appal- 
