68 
SOCIETY MEETINGS 
unpleasantness. I travel on an average over a thousand miles a 
month in the State of Nebraska, and if I was accosted once I 
was a dozen times during the time to which I have alluded, and 
I was pleased to see the people defend the federal government. 
They never believed the accusations which the press made 
against the federal inspectors. When in 1894 I took the posi¬ 
tion I now hold, it was a common thing to hear such a remark 
as “ Oh, such and such an animal will pass all right.” You 
don’t hear any more of that. The people of the State of Ne¬ 
braska, at least, have come to the conclusion that they are not 
going to be cheated, but, on the contrary, they are going to be 
protected. They were probably, as Dr. Stewart intimated, 
skeptical at the beginning, and insinuations were made as to 
the ease with which the inspectors might be bribed. True, an 
inspector may be bribed occasionally. We cannot help that ; 
but the people have found that the federal government has a 
check on such things as that, and it can soon be located and rec¬ 
tified. I can assure any one who is connected with the meat 
inspection that he may be proud he is in the service. It is 
superfluous to say that many things might be suggested, which, 
if adopted would benefit the service ; but it must be remembered 
that meat inspection has been in vogue in this country but a 
short time, comparatively, and when one has had an opportunity 
of personally comparing the efficiency of the systems in other 
countries with that of our own, I think the conclusion that we 
have a superior system unavoidable. • You gentlemen here read 
the extracts from Ostertag and other authorities, and you read 
the comments in our journals ; but there are hundreds of men, 
in the southern part of Germany especially, who have never 
graduated, but who are appointed, and who supervise the killing 
of animals, and inspect the meat, and in Ostertag's book you 
will notice that a great many times it says an animal had to be 
killed, say in a case of choke. The layman quacks will say it 
is liable to die, and they will kill it and that meat is used for 
food, and so with very many other diseases. 
Dr. Moore: Dr. Peters’ remarks suggest a thought upon 
which I would like to ask for information. It is a common 
thing in this country to run across German practitioners, who 
claim to have been practitioners under the German government, 
whom we know from their work and from what we can see and 
learn of them, are not qualified men, and I would like to ask if it 
is a fact that the German government does employ such men. 
Dr. Peters : They are employed as inspectors, but not by 
