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rightly so, for any tampering with drugs, on the due administration
of which life itself may depend, is a heinous offence.
Pharmaceutical chemists, moreover, are bound to know the
quality of the articles in which they deal, and have, in the
British Pharmacopæia, an authoritative standard of purity
and quality laid down for the most important drugs and
chemicals, accompanied by directions for testing as to purity
and quality. These gentlemen are therefore placed in a different
category from the ordinary trader.
4. The mixer as well as the vendor of an adulterated article
is liable to punishment.
Though the Act is crudely drawn and bears the marks of the haste
in which it passed through parliament, its intentions are admirable—
to protect the public health against injurious adulteration; and to
protect the public against frauds on their pockets. I trust that the
great care and discretion which the Vestry and its Committees have
taken iu putting the Act in force, so as duly to enforce it without
hardship to the trading community will produce excellent results.
SLAUGHTER-HOUSES.
In my last annual report, I drew attention to a Bill introduced
into the Session of Parliament of 1872, for the perpetuation of
private Slaughter-houses. I regret that the Bill, thrown out last
Session has been re-introduced in the present Session. The question
has also been taken up by the Butcher's Trade Society, which has
issued a placard urging the public to petition in favour of the Bill.
In this document great stress is laid upon the high price of meat,
which, it is alleged, would be raised by the abolition of private
Slaughter-houses; whilst the Sanitary aspects of the question are
(perhaps on account of the difficulty of meeting them) ignored,—
except that it is stated the public Abattoirs would be gigantic
nuisances. I regret that the Society should be so apparently illinformed
as to some of the facts of the case.
I must assert my conviction that many of the small ill-constructed
Slaughter-houses in this parish, are sources of great annoyance to a
neighbourhood and cause serious nuisances. There are 87 slaughterhouses
in this parish, and it is impossible for two general Sanitary
Inspectors to do more than make periodical visits to them. It would
require one inspector's whole time to give them the amount of attention
which they require. Vested interests have alone prevented
many of these places being abolished; and the year 1874 has been
looked forward to as the time at which they would legally cease to
exist.
One of the great evils connected with private Slaughter-houses is
the facilities they afford for the slaughter of diseased animals, as no
efficient inspection can be made of the animals before they are
slaughtered. Diseased animals cannot well be slaughtered in public
Abattoirs without detection.