398 
EDITORIAL. 
tions, outside of New York, are the persons appointed qualified 
for the position ? We reply without hesitation, they are not. 
Politicians, police officers and butchers are those who receive the 
responsible office which empowers them to condemn or approve 
the meats brought to market for public consumption. 
In Europe, in France for example, we find that these places 
are opened to competition ; and in what does the examination 
consist? In one case, for a position of Veterinary Inspector of 
the abattoir of Besancon, the public announcement showed that 
the candidate would be submitted to four examinations. First— 
A written report or paper upon a subject of pathology and path¬ 
ological anatomy. Second—In sanitary inspection and autopsy 
of animals. Third—Examination, with miscroscope if necessary, 
of meats. Fourth—Examination upon alterations of alimentary 
substances. 
European veterinary journals are at various times giving us 
notice of these examinations, no one being admitted to the com¬ 
petition unless he holds the diploma of one of the Veterinary 
Schools of the country. 
By objectors to such appointments here, it has been claimed 
that our veterinarians were not competent to decide as to the 
quality of various meats. We cannot, however, entertain such a 
statement. Thoroughly acquainted, as they are supposed to be, 
with the various changes incident to diseased conditions, and know¬ 
ing the lesions that diseased processes leave behind them, their 
causes and their nature, we hold that no class of persons are 
better qualified than they for the position. Our V eterinary 
Schools, by their special curriculum, educate young men in just 
that particular direction. Veterinary students are not only taught 
and shown the alterations that will be presented by the meat of 
diseased animals, but they are more or less initiated in the use of 
the microscope, and by its aid they can detect many diseased con¬ 
ditions which would escape the attention of those unfamiliar with 
its use. 
The days are gone when veterinary medicine in the United 
States consisted only in the treatment of diseased animals. The 
days of the old-fashioned “ horse doctor,” and “ cow-leech,” are 
