182 
LEONARD PEARSON. 
with blood, manure and pieces of fat and meat that appear to 
have been accumulating since the buildings were erected, years 
ago. The live cattle are kept in compartments immediately ad¬ 
joining the rooms in which animals are killed and meat is stored. 
The cattle are killed at irregular times, occasionally early in 
the morning or at night, and the methods of dressing the car¬ 
cass and preparing the meat for market are frequently of a dirty 
and unwholesome character. 
For the purpose of inspecting the meat slaughtered in Phila¬ 
delphia there are two u meat detectives,” who have associated 
with them two veterinarians to be called in when the detec¬ 
tives find conditions that they consider suspicious. These de¬ 
tectives visit every day as many slaughter-houses as it is possi¬ 
ble for them to reach, making a short visit at each one. If, dur¬ 
ing the time of their visit, they should happen to find diseased 
organs or diseased meat, the veterinarian is called on for an ex- 
s 
pert opinion and the meat is condemned, or not, according to 
his verdict. During the ninety-nine-one-hundredths of the day 
when the meat inspector is not present the slaughter-houses are 
not under inspection or control. It cannot be said, therefore, 
that there is a general system of meat inspection in Philadel¬ 
phia. The inspectors examine as much meat and as many 
cattle as it is possible for them to see and are constantly em¬ 
ployed. By their efforts a large quantity of dangerous meat is 
kept out of the market and the health of the public is protected 
to an important degree, but the force employed by the city is 
utterly inadequate. I do not wish these remarks to be con¬ 
strued as a criticism of the cities’ meat inspectors. It is rather 
a criticism of the city’s meat inspection system, a thing for 
which the inspectors are not responsible. The need of an effi¬ 
cient and thorough system of meat inspection is discussed by 
others at this meeting, so that I need only touch upon this por¬ 
tion of the general subject. Since the bacterial origin of many 
diseases has been demonstrated and the close relationship of 
some diseases of man to those of animals has been established, 
the importance of rational meat inspection has been greatly era- 
