570 
A. LIAUTARD. 
2 . INSPECTION OF MEAT. 
Inspection of meat was begun officially in 1891. The law re¬ 
quires that the inspected meat be marked for identification, and 
this is accomplished by fastening a meat inspection tag to each 
quarter or piece, with a wire and lead seal. 
These tags enable the consumer to learn whether the meat 
which he is buying has been inspected, because if the wires are 
properly sealed the tags cannot be removed from one piece and 
attached to another. The tags are also intended under the law 
as a means of identifying meat which may be shipped from one 
State to another or to any foreign country. 
When the law is fully complied with, only inspected meat 
can be used in interstate or foreign commerce. All meat ship¬ 
ped abroad is now inspected, and has been since the beginning 
of the fiscal year 1892. In 1892 there were inspected for ex¬ 
port 1,190,771 quarters of beef; in 1893, 1,036,809; in 1894, 
2,417,312 quarters and 4022 smaller pieces. In 1892 there 
were inspected for the same purpose 583,361 carcasses of sheep 
and 59,089 of calves. In 1893, 92,947 carcasses of calves and 
870,512 of sheep. 
I am unable to give you the figures for 1895, 1896 and ’97; 
no doubt they are proportionately the same. The inspection 
and tagging of canned meat, salted meat and smoked meat are 
done in the same manner, and the number of those articles is 
enormous. The number of animals inspected before slaughter 
in official abattoirs, counting cattle, calves, sheep and hogs, is as 
follows: 
In the year 1891 83,891 In the year 1895 18,783,000 
1892 3,809,459 
1893 4,885,633 
1894 12,944,056 
1896 28,275,739 
1897 26,541,812 
189S ,31,213,966 
The microscopical examination of pork is a matter which 
receives the greatest attention at the hands of the Bureau of 
Animal Industry, carried on, as it is, by a large body of assist¬ 
ant microscopists. 
According to Dr. Salmon’s reports, the following table shows 
