London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Islington 1900
Forty-fifth annual report on the health and sanitary condition of the Borough of Islington
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142
1900]
When originally your Medical Officer recommended the appointment of a
meat inspector, he calculated that about 6o,ooo animals were slaughtered every
year in the private slaughter houses of Islington. Last year Inspector Young
reported that 57,267 were killed in these places, the great majority of which he
inspected, either while living or after death.
It became his duty to seize nearly 19 tons of food, two tons of which consisted
of tinned goods; over 6½ tons of meat seized in butchers' shops &c., mostly unsound;
and over 10¾ tons of meat, mostly diseased, in slaughter houses. This is a good
record of work, for it is much more difficult to examine animals in forty different
slaughter houses than it is in a properly appointed abattoir or a public market,
where the inspector has only to move slowly from one stall to another.
A comparative statement of the animals slaughtered in 1899 and in 1900 shows that 9,838 more were killed in the latter year.
| 1899 | 1900 | Increase + or Decrease — | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oxen | 2,386 | + 579 | |
| Cows | 402 | + 266 | |
| Bulls | 50 | + 4 | |
| Calves | 436 | — 80 | |
| Sheep | 43,252 | + 9,508 | |
| Pigs | 903 | — 439 | |
| Totals | 47,429 | + 9,838 |
The diseases from which animals, the part or whole of whose meat was seized, suffered, were as follows:—
| Tuberculosis | 152 animals |
| Dropsy | 2 „ |
| Asphyxia | 1 „ |
| Abscesses | 18 „ |
| Parasites | 143 „ |
| Mammitis | 9 „ |
| Actinomycosis | 2 „ |
| Pericarditis | 1 „ |
| Pleurisy | 5 „ |
| Pyaemia | 2 „ |
| Bruises | 3 „ |
| Generally Unsound | 18 „ |
| Total | 356 |