prevalence of cholera among American hogs are gross exaggerations, and trichinosis is almost an unknown disease at Chicago and Cincinnati, the two greatest pork-preparing centers in the world. It must be allowed the Americans are advancing; the superior tone and highly official character of this report could not be beaten by any department or bureau in effete, old monarch-ridden Europe. The assurance as to the pure blood of the whole race of American swine is especially charming and to the purpose.”

The editor, however, fails to draw attention to the action of the British Government, which is elsewhere set forth in the same issue :

"On Monday in the House of Lords the Marquis of Huntly, in reply to Lord Stanley, of Alderley, said: 'It is doubtful whether there is any power to prohibit the importation of such articles. There is no well-established case of American hams imported into this country being infected with trichinæ. The local government board had issued a circular to all the sanitary authorities in the country, urging special vigilance and precautions in the inspection of meat. There was nothing to show that oleomargerine contained the grease of pigs suffering from the swine disease. The adulteration of butter with soapstone he did not think to be injurious to health. Any person selling an article injurious to health_ would be liable to a penalty and then to imprisonment under the sale of food and drugs act. Under these circumstances the Government would not prohibit the importation of the articles referred to.""

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are toked. ir: made by a pruge of new design, and a similar instrument, y auses less Casariton than the ni or ther harpeen, is * used to examine the muscles of the ring "animal and will. it is bellered, be applicable human patients."

The abattoirs of Paris, which have fished the name and the model for public slaughterhouses throughout the civilized world, were

erected in accordance with the recommendation of a commission appointed by Napoleon I., February 9, 1810. The abattoirs were opened for business in 1818. It is not to be supposed that the idea was original with the French, for they simply modified and improved the Roman system, which was in use in the time of Nero, under whose reign the butcher's guild flourished to an unexampled degree. How much farther back in the world's history the rudimentary abattoir existed we have no certain source of information. The admirable medical reports of the Chinese imperial customs are generally silent on the subject, but it is pretty certain that the Chinese have had no general abattoir system. Dr. Myers, of the Chinese customs service, reporting from Wenchow in 1877, states that the beef sold in that market "is of the most objectionable kind, "being generally procured from the carcasses of animals that have died from disease, or "been slaughtered in anticipation of that event.”

It is not a matter of wonder, in view of this fact, that the "heathen Chinee" should prefer even trichinous rats, or rice.

The modern abattoir has come to be recognized as one of the most essential factors in the solution of the problem of how to furnish our cities with healthy meat. At the abattoir the animals are received from the car, the steamboat, or driven from the road; they are allowed to rest their fevered limbs after the journey; they are fed and watered, and, after becoming thoroughly rested and cooled, they are examined by an inspector. If passed by that officer, the animals are slaughtered, and the public may be reasonably certain that everything is being done to protect it against the possibility of purchasing diseased meat. The Brighton abattoir near Boston is a good working model of what such an institution should be when properly conducted. There are facilities at that institution for the slaughter of all the cattle and sheep necessary

to supply the Boston market. The blood, bone, and refuse are converted into dry fertilizer, and the gases generated during the process are conveyed by pipes to the furnaces under the great steam boilers. No animal matter remains upon the premises uncared for; the stables and stockyards are neatly kept, and the management of the abattoir, formerly under the State board, is now under the supervision of the city board of health. The former state in one of their reports that "it has been proved possible to carry on a "great slaughtering and rendering establishment "without its being offensive either to the work"men in it or to the community around it."