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55
for renewal of their licenses I have in several instances required
structural alterations to be made as a condition of such
renewal. Thus, in two slaughter-houses, I have required alterations
in the pens in which animals awaiting slaughter are kept
in order to prevent them from seeing their fellows being killed.
In another instance I have had the light and ventilation improved
by the addition of an extra large window.
Having from time to time pointed out, as cases have arisen, to
the Public Health Committee the impracticability, with many
slaughter-houses scattered over the district, of maintaining efficient
inspection at the time of slaughter, they desired me to report as
to the financial profits of a public abattoir. This I did, making use
of Dr. Mearns Fraser's collected information from those towns
which had already established abattoirs.
The consideration of the figures so revealed, taken with our
local circumstances, viz., the proximity to London and large towns
like Stratford and Walthamstow, seemed to point to the inevitable
conclusion that the effect of the establishment by us of a municipal
slaughter-house would be that of a dead loss to us, whilst the
slaughtering would be done in the neighbouring districts.
So there seems nothing further to be done until the State
imposes the duty upon all municipalities to provide public abattoirs.
TUBERCULOUS MEAT.
During the year I have instituted two prosecutions under
Sections 116 and 117 of the Public Health Act, 1875. In the first