View report page

5
but this can no longer be done without acting in direct con-
travention of the aforesaid building Act, nor will the attempt
be made to do so, warning having been given in all the
licences issued last October to this effect.
Under ordinary circumstances it was rather singular that
Dr. Brewer should have advised the Metropolitan Board of
Works (who, by-the-bye, if they had had an officer of health
to advise, would not have been persuaded to endorse such a
Bill in the last Session of Parliament, in spite of the opinions
of nearly all the metropolitan and provincial medical officers
of health who have experience, and given attention to the
slaughter-house question) to undertake to bring in a Bill to
repeal the clause of the Metropolitan Building Act, prohibiting
the carrying on of offensive and noxious trades, and thus
endeavour to perpetuate the evils of private slaughter-houses,
which in my opinion, are practically irremediable by any
kind of regulation and inspection by local officials.*
When the Bill was brought forward for second reading last
Session, the House of Commons referred it to a Select Committee
to inquire into the regulations of noxious trades, and
the following recommendations were reported:—
1. Sec. 55 should be repealed; additional slaughter-houses be
erected at Copenhagen Cattle Market.
2. Private slaughter-houses should be regulated by bye-laws.
3. That slaughter-houses should be made the means of detecting
and preventing contagious disease of cattle.
"With due deference to the members of the Select Committee,
I must be allowed here to say, as one competent to speak on
the subject, that the second recommendation is utterly
impracticable. The Committee, as amateurs, visiting
these places, were grossly deceived as to the facts and
circumstances under their observation. They remarked
almost one fact only, namely, that of cleanliness at the
time of their visit. The officers of public health visiting these
places at all hours, and seeing them when kept in the most perfect
condition attainable by sanitary control and inspection,state
most emphatically that they cannot be otherwise regarded than
as nuisances at least, in all built up parts of town. In words
used by medical officers of health, and in reports of inspectors
* Dr. Brewer's short Bill consists of the following clause:—"From and
after the passing of this Act, the slaughtering of cattle or sheep by a
butcher, in his slaughter-house, duly licensed, shall not be held to be
carrying on an offensive or noxious business within the meaning of thy
said Act, 7 and 8 Viet. c. 84."