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28
By-laws for Slaughter-houses.
Under Section 19 (4) of the Public Health London Act, 1891, the London
County Council made By-laws for regulating the conduct of the business of a
slaughterer of cattle in the County of London. The object of the By-law is to
secure more humane slaughtering, and it prohibits the slaughter of an animal
until it shall have been effectually stunned with a mechanically operated
instrument. The By-law does not apply to a member of the Jewish faith licensed
by the Chief Rabbi as a slaughterer when engaged in the slaughtering of cattle
intended for the food of Jews according to the Jewish method of slaughtering,
if no unnecessary suffering is inflicted. An amendment of the By-law is now
under consideration (March, 1925), to extend the exception to any person
professing the Mohammedan religion when engaged in the slaughtering of any
animal intended for the food of Mohammedans, in accordance with the procedure
prescribed by Moslem law and custom, if no unnecessary suffering is inflicted upon
such animal.
Places where Food is prepared for Sale.
Under this head are included kitchens of hotels, restaurants and eating-houses
of all sorts, slaughter-houses, tripe, offal and other meat shops, fried fish, eel
and other fish shops, premises where ice cream is made, and other places where
food is prepared for sale, excluding bakehouses which are given above.
The number of such places on the register at the end of the year was as
follows:—
Hotels, Restaurants and Eating Houses 228
Slaughter-houses 1
Tripe, offal and other meat shops 35
Fried Fish shops 11
Fish shops 14
Tee Cream (Manufacture) 83
Poulterers 3
During the year 2,419 inspections of food premises and market streets were made
and 21 notices served for sanitary defects found.
Washing up Arrangements in Restaurants, Eating Houses and Public Houses.
In last year's Annual Report especial attention was called to the need for
efficient washing up arrangements in connection with the large number of places
in the Borough where meals were consumed by the public.
An interesting comment on the importance of this subject is a report by a wellknown
American bacteriologist who confirms, what we have known for a long time,
that table utensils which have been used by tuberculous people do carry bacilli,
and that the remains of food found on their unwashed spoons and forks give
tuberculosis to about 10 per cent, of the guinea pigs into which they are injected.
But it must be noted that these results were obtained before any washing has
taken place. After carefully cleansing the crockery and plate in a mechanical
apparatus in which they are stirred about in boiling water and then dried with
hot air, no animal used for experimentation has ever contracted tuberculosis.