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98
Abattoirs versus Public Slaughter-houses. — In
connection with the subject of slaughter-houses, reference may
be made to an instruction by the County Council to the Public
Health Committee, to report as to thedesirability of establishing
public slaughter-houses throughout London, and as to the
facilities which such a system would afford for the better inspection
of the meat supply. The medical officer of the Council
submitted a report on the subject, in which he showed the inadequacyof
the inspection of meatconsumedin London, and pointed
out that diseased meat was largely received into London, and
that for protection, especially of the poorer inhabitants, who are
the purchasers of the cheaper meat, it was necessary that a
system of inspection of all dead meat introduced into London,
and which had not been examined in a public slaughter-house,
should be instituted. In order, moreover, to ensure the inspection
of meat killed in London, he considered it necessary that
all animals should be killed in public slaughter-houses, in which
alone due inspection of the meat is practicable. By far the
greater number of such animals are killed in the slaughterhouses
of the Corporation of the City of London, at Deptford
and Islington ; but information obtained from occupiers of
private slaughter-houses, of which there are some438 in London
(as compared with 1,500 in 1874, when the now repealed
Slaughter-houses Act was passed) showed that, in winter, some
900 beasts, 7,000 sheep and 900 pigs, and in summer some 800
beasts, 11,000 sheep, and 500 pigs, are killed per week in these
premises. The Committee in their report (July 21st), stated
that the systematic inspection of the animals is impossible
in view of the numerous premises in which they are killed.
The medical officer was of opinion that some half-dozen
public slaughter-houses, owned by the Council, would suffice
for the requirements of the butchers, if placed in convenient
(indicated) spots, and in railway communication with the
principal cattle markets outside London, as well as with the
cattle market at Islington. He anticipated that when butchers