70 
SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
meat themselves they would not like anybody else to eat it. 
Under the circumstance of the cheapness and abundance of 
meat in this country, it seems to me that such a sentiment 
should be-given some play. 
Dr. Forbes : I do not know anything about the system of 
meat inspection in Germany, but I have had a little experience 
with it as it is carried on in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, and 
know of my own personal knowledge that it is quite a common 
thing for veterinary surgeons when called in cases of parturition 
not amenable to treatment, immediately upon arriving at this 
conclusion they advised the owner to slaughter it and send it 
into the city for food. The inspector there is a policeman, who 
acts under the medical health officer, and not one-fourth of 
them know a diseased condition when they see it. In a case of 
parturition my employer and myself, after working several 
hours in a futile endeavor to relieve the cow, decided that we 
could do nothing further for her. She was on the point of col¬ 
lapse. The owner was so informed, and he decided to kill the 
animal, which was done, the carcass transported to the city and 
there placed on the market. So that the more we learn of 
others the more reason we have to be satisfied with American 
inspection. 
Dr. Goode: Dr. Stewart’s remarks remind me of one or two 
cases that came under my own observation in the city of Chat¬ 
tanooga, Tenn. In one case a very fat steer was brought in 
suffering with what afterwards proved to be actinomycosis. 
The matter was noised about in some way, and the captain of 
police was there and a crowd had congregated around, and the 
stockyards men telephoned to me to come down and see it. 
Before I got there the animal had been killed, but not bled. It 
was thrown away at a loss of fifty dollars. They said that even 
if it was all right they were opposed to using it for fear some¬ 
thing would be said about it and it would damage their busi¬ 
ness. I said, u you could afford to use it on my say so, couldn’t 
you ? ” They said no, they did not care to risk it. In another 
case, I was called to treat a cow in a case of chronic prolapsus 
of the rectum. One night it came out and we could not get it 
back. The cow was two months after calving and was fat, and 
I advised the owner to slaughter her for beef, but he said he 
didn’t want to do it. I placed an ecraseur around the mass and 
cut it off and the cow died from the shock, and he lost the 
value of the cow. These are two cases I know of where the 
owner incurred a loss just from fear of public opinion. 
