From the room where they kill the hogs, in each of the plants, go daily a certain number of carcasses marked with red tags: “U. S. Condemned.” These hogs have been found to be tuberculous, which means that the flesh had ptomaines in it. These ptomaines are deadly poisons—and not germs which cooking can kill, but poisons, which will remain and be fatal, no matter what may be done to the meat. The government requires that these carcasses be “tanked,” that is, destroyed and turned into fertilizer;
