66 
SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
forth by those in authority in regard to this inspection will 
ultimately result in a system complete and perfect in every de¬ 
tail, when the mark of the United States government will be a 
sufficient guarantee to any country in the world as to the purity 
and wholesomeness of its meat products. 
Dr. Stewart: Permit me to say that Dr. Peters prepared 
this paper at my suggestion. I had received a communiation 
from the Secretary, Dr. Kelly, stating that there was rather a 
dearth of papers, and it occurred to me that we could possibly 
prevail upon Dr. Peters to attend our meeting and prepare a 
paper for this occasion. I suggested that the paper discuss the 
views of the people in general, and of those veterinarians who 
are not in the service, as to the value and quality of the inspec¬ 
tion as conducted by the federal inspectors. That was my idea, 
rather than comparison with foreign inspection. I think it is 
beneficial to us “ to see oursel’s as ithers see us.” I thought it 
would be more or less interesting to the members of the inspect¬ 
ing corps here to know how the people in Lincoln, where they 
have but a small abattoir and get most of their meat from South 
Omaha, look upon the subject of inspection. Dr. Peters travels 
over the State of Nebraska extensively, and is in touch with 
other parts of the country, and is certainly in position to learn 
the views of the people generally. However, I would say that 
he has prepared a paper which is probably more interesting than 
would be one prepared upon the basis I have indicated. It is 
gratifying to learn that our inspection bears so favorable a com¬ 
parison with that of Germany. I am indebted to Dr. Peters for 
the information that the inspection in that country is not 
federal, but local. It would certainly seem that where it is 
under so many authorities it could scarcely be uniform through¬ 
out the empire of Germany. It may possibly be extra good in 
some points and very poor in others, and explains the blunders 
that have been made, especially in the microscopic work, where 
they have rural as well as municipal inspection. A layman, or 
man having been but partially instructed in the use of the 
microscope, is delegated to do rural inspection. His attention 
is called to the fact that a farmer wants to slaughter a hog and 
consume it for his own use, and gives a permit for him to do so. 
The farmer and his friends kill the animal and consume the 
meat sometimes before the inspection is completed. An out¬ 
break of trichinosis occurs, an investigation is made, and it is 
found they have been eating pork that has not been inspected, 
or if so has been imperfectly inspected and passed. Relative to 
