London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

London County Council 1898

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]

This page requires JavaScript

5
The number of animals slaughtered in the City is not included in this statement, and as already
pointed out there are 6 or 8 private slaughterhouses in that district. Site V., however, would
serve for the convenience of any meat vendors in the City who desired to use the public slaughterhouses.
Although in this scheme particular districts are allotted to particular slaughterhouses, it is not
proposed that this distribution should be arbitrary, but it is made merely to give some indication of the
probable extent of use of the several proposed slaughterhouses, so far as this can be estimated by the
number of cattle killed at the present time.
It will be seen that slaughterhouses of small size are required for the purpose of meeting the
immediate wants of London, and it ought to be possible to secure sites, for the erection of the necessa y
buildings, sufficiently extensive to allow of enlargement of these buildings if this should be subsequently
required, and to provide for their sufficient separation from inhabited houses, a condition which
I regard as necessary in the interest of the neighbourhood in which they would be placed.
Accommodation necessary in slaughterhouses.
In the most complete public slaughterhouses in the cities I have visited separate slaughtering
halls are provided (a) for cattle, (b) for sheep and calves, (c) for swine. It is recognised that the
slaughtering of cattle and sheep and calves may be conducted in the same hall where less accommodation
suffices for a small community, but separate provision should be made for the killing and scalding
of swine. Further, there should be a separate slaughterhouse for animals having indications of illhealth
during lifetime. In connection with each slaughterhouse there should be accommodation for
the hanging of carcases, and to which the carcases can be at once transferred by means of overhead
rails passing from the slaughterhouse into the hanging room. Further necessary provision is adequate
lairage, accommodation for the deposit of intestines, blood and fat, a cooling house with engine-room
attached, an administrative building containing offices and a room for the microscopic examination of
meat, house accommodation for the superintendent, waterclosets and urinals, a lodge and weighing
bridge.
In the German slaughterhouses provision is also made for the cleansing of intestines; whether
facilities should be given for this purpose in the proposed slaughterhouses is a point which will require
further consideration.
In the German slaughterhouses provision is also made for the exposure to hot steam of meat,
which is only allowed to leave the premises after cooking, such meat being sold to the poor at a
" freibank."
In the Berlin slaughterhouses separate chambers are provided for each butcher who desires to
rent one, but this in practice has been found to militate against the inspection of meat, and hence in
slaughterhouses more recently constructed the butchers slaughter in common halls, paying fees for the
use of the premises. The latter arrangement is that which I should recommend in any slaughterhouses
provided by the Council.

The fees paid in German slaughterhouses by the butchers vary considerably, the average is given by Osthoff1 as follows—

Oxen5.00 marks.
Cows2.50 „
Calves0.40 „
Sheep0.30 „
Pigs1.50 „

Small fees are also charged for weighing.
No charge is made for lairage during the first day, but afterwards the charges for every day
and night are—
Oxen and cows 0.25 marks per day and night
Sheep and calves 0.05 „ „
Pigs 0.10 „ „
and no animal is allowed to be kept more than five days on the premises.

'land the following charges are made for the use of the slaughterhouses—

Cattle.Calves.Sheep.Pigs.
s.d.d.d.d.
Liverpool1666
Manchester16426
Leeds1433
Bradford1324
Carlisle1626
Exeter1426

If in the proposed slaughterhouses the Council charged Is. 6d. for beasts, 6d. for calves, 4d. for
sheep and Is. for pigs, the receipts, on the basis of the number of animals now killed in private
slaughterhouses, would be £13,900 per annum. There would also be receipts from the rent of cells in
the cooling house. In Germany the charges vary from 14s. per square metre per annum to 40s. The
cells vary from 2 to 12 square metres in size.
Administration.
The intention of the provision of public slaughterhouses is to secure the better inspection of
meat, and hence it is necessary that the administration should be arranged with this object. It is
proposed for this purpose that the superintendent of each slaughterhouse should be a veterinarv
surgeon skilled in meat inspection, that he should have direction of the management of the slaughterhouse,
and that he should be responsible for the meat inspection. I think it would be quite possible
in some degree to utilize the services of laymen who would act under his control, and who would be
* "Handbuch der Hygiene,"Vol. VI., Part I., page 55.