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258
[1910
It is also wrong to blow the meat with the ordinary air, for by bringing it into
contact with the deep tissues of the joints, decomposition is most certainly
hastened. This practice then is objectionable from every point of view, even
from that of disguising the quality of the meat, an object which the butcher
may have in view when he orders the meat to be blown.
Several towns throughout the country have obtained legislation in this
direction, and one of the enactments reads as follows:—
"It shall not be lawful to blow or inflate the carcase or any part of the
"carcase of any animal slaughtered within or brought into the district, and any
"person offending against this enactment, or exposing or depositing for sale
"within the district a carcase blown or inflated, or any part thereof, shall be
"liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty shillings."
Slaughterhouses.—There are now only 32 slaughterhouses, as contrasted
with 34 in the preceding year, on the register. These places have
decreased from 62 in 1892 to the above figure. Many of the slaughterhouses
that have disappeared were obviously very unfitted for the purpose for which
they were used. All of them, however, were not equally unsuitable, and
therefore their licences were not objected to. Of late years, however, owing
to the large increase in the consumption of chilled and frozen meat imported
from the Argentine, New Zealand, Australia, and in lesser amounts from the
United States, many butchers have ceased to deal in English meat as their
staple, and have catered for their customers by selling the cheaper meat.
The Medical Officer of Health, while regretting the decrease in the sale of
English meat, feels no sorrow at the closure of these private slaughterhouses,
for it is his opinion that all animals should be slaughtered under the
most favourable conditions, which can only be attained to the fullest extent
in well-managed public abattoirs. He does not mean by this that a very
large proportion of the meat killed in the private slaughterhouses of the borough
is not of first-class quality, for it is ; but it is obvious that in a borough or township
it is impossible for one or even two meat inspectors to be present at the
slaughtering of all the animals, and, therefore, the inspector has to trust to
a large extent to the honour and honesty of the butchers for fair dealing.
In Islington for a good many years it has been found that the butchers when
they discover that an animal or the organs of an animal were diseased
put them aside for examination by the inspector when he called. Rigid