St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-10-04
MEAT INSPECTION.

A correspondent writing from Man
kato wishes to know if the meat inSpec-
| ton law is still in force in this state. or
| has been rendered imperative by Judge
NELSON'S decision. He also expresses
a desire to have the GLOBES opinion on
the sanitary feature of the law and to
say whether or not, in our Judgment,
| there is real danger of disease being
caught from butchers meat, or has the
danger simply been magnified to fur
niSh pretext for meat inspection?
In reply to the first inquiry we will
| say that the law is still In force, and
| those who sell dressed meat which has
not been previously inspected OH the
hoOf and slaughtered in the state are
liable to its penalties, and will be until
the law has been declared null and void
by either the supreme court of this state
or tie supreme court of the United
| States.
In response to the second inquiry, we
will say most emphatically that the
| danger of disease being communicated
| is neither imaginary. nor has it been
magnified for effect. 1t may be that
the local slaughter concerns were glad
enough to find an excuse for securing
the passage of law that would benefit
| their particular interests, yet that fact
| does not lessen the real danger from
using impure meats. There is nothing
now more clearly established in medl-
cal science than the communicating of
| tubercular disease, the most deadly of
| all the maladies which affliet humanity,
and it is most frequently communicated
through the use of the milk and meat
of diseased cattle. The presence Of
| danger is intensified by the fact that it
| is frequently incapable of being recOg-
nized during lifetime, and is revealed
| only by a post mortem examination of
the organs implicated. Thus it will be
seen that hoOf inspection is not
always a protection against this
/ danger. The fact is we should have a
! double inspection, first on the hOOf and
then after the animal is slaughtered.
A report recently made by DR.. KOCH.
the government adviser in the imperial
health department of Berlin, gives the
| result of number of experiments and
investigations made by himself, which
demonstrates the precise character of
| the cOntagiOn. By microscopic exam
nations of diseased organs of both men
| and animals he discovered the existence
of the minute parasitic organism dwell
! ing in the center of the tubercle cell.
| Transferring the tuberculOus matter
from affected to healthy animals he in
variably reproduced the disease. His
experiments went further, and proved
beyond the possibility of doubt that it
was the bacillus solely, and not
any virus in which it was i'm
bedded in the diseased organs,
! that reproduced the disease. The extent
to which cattle are subject to tubercuIar
disease is alarming. For instance, DR..
CARPENTER, a renowned English ply
sician, reports that an inspector in the
| Metropolitan meat market declared,
upon oath. that so per cent of the meat
| sent to the London market had tuber-
! cuIar disease. DR.. RICHTER stated
recently at a meeting of the Berlin
! Medical society, that according to the
| statements of veterinary surgeons, at
least so per cent of the cattle of Ger
| many are afflicted. In Denmark the
| prevalence of this disease in cattle has
been frequently demonstrated. At the
Congress of tuberculosis in Paris last
year, many leading authorities dilated
OH this grave, yet unsupported, danger
| to the public. The Psychologists of the
health department the city of New
| 4,,l.a 10
| transmitted by the milk and flesh of
affected animals, and that "thOse meas
ures of precaution alone answer the
| requirements which embrace the gov
ernmental inspection of dairy cows and
of animals slaughtered for food" These
| opinions have been cOncurred III by such
eminent medical authorities as DR..
PARKER, of the London university; DIR.
| WooDREAD. superintendent of the
laboratory of the Edinburg Royal Col
lege of Physicians; by the International
Medical college held at Melbourne, and
NJ. CHANEAU, president of the Paris
congress.
We have cited the above authorities
to show that the danger is not imaginary
or magnifed, as our correspondent
suspects, but that meat inspection is a
legitimate, as well as most necessary
exercise of the police power of the
state, in order to protect the health
and lives of its citizens. 1t may be
possible, as the learned judges have
eXpounded it, that the law is IN conflict
with the commercial clause of the fed
eraI constitution. yet the law of self
protection is paramount to all constitu-
lions and written statutes. To this
generation, so many of whom are dying
of consumption and scrofulous diseases,
it is of more Importance to be protected
from the ravages of the bacillus than it
is to stop and higgle over the constitu-
tional divisions of power that are sup
osed to exist between the state and
the federal governments.
GOLD IN CHINA.
| CbiDaco vpnuId 4