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full of useful, practical suggestions, the result of his own
experience gained as Head Master at Clifton College, and
afterwards at Rugby School. Pure air, suitable clothing,
proper diet (including the avoidance or limitation of the
"tuck" shop), longer periods of sleep and rest, the abolition
of alcohol for boys at schools, varieties in work, and the
discouragement of "loafing," etc., were the items dealt with
ex tempore by the President in his Address, which will be
long remembered by those who were privileged to hear it.
The need for instructing teachers in biology in its bearing
on hygiene, was held to be most necessary, so as to enable
them to impart suitable sanitary knowledge to their pupils
—the subject of hygiene and the laws of health being held to
be specially needed for girls in secondary schools.
6.—Advantages of Public Abattoirs.
This subject was discussed at the Conference of Sanitary
Inspectors, and it was generally agreed that private
slaughter-houses were, from a sanitary point of view,
inferior to Public Abattoirs—the former lending themselves,
at times, to abuse, and frequently sheltering unprincipled
butchers and permitting them to carry on a nefarious trade
in diseased meat. The practical difficulties in abolishing all
private slaughter-houses, without proper compensation, and
the financial outlay that would be required for such compensation
were pointed out, as also was the fact that some private
slaughter-houses are kept in a very satisfactory condition,
and that it would be wrong to assume that all private
slaughter-houses, as private slaughter-houses, were insanitary.
For administrative purposes, however, and in connection
with a pure meat supply, there was general agreement
that Sanitary Authorities (at least Urban Districts) should
be provided with Public Abattoirs, wherein butchers could
slaughter animals.
After a long discussion, the following resolution was
finally carried unanimously: "That it be compulsory upon
Urban Sanitary Authorities to provide Public Abattoirs, and
to grant powers to suppress private slaughter-houses; that
licensed slaughter-houses in rural districts be the only places
in which animals intended for human food must be slaughtered;
and that all meat, which had passed inspection, be
stamped."