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The majority of butchers have loyally fallen into line with regard
to giving notice of slaughtering, one notable exception being
an individual who seems to take a delight in giving the officers endless
trouble as to the times of slaughtering. The requirements
with regard to ensuring freedom from contamination have been in
most cases satisfactorily followed by the provision of windows.
The Regulations are in many ways entirely unsatisfactory. It
is only necessary to take a bus ride from Hounslow to Hammersmith
to see how extremely difficult it is for a Medical Officer in a
district such as this with practically artificial boundaries, to deal
with the problem in his own district if his near neighbours are
failing to get the Regulations satisfactorily carried out. Directly
he asks for the satisfactory arrangements foreshadowed in the
Regulations, he is faced by the reply that neighbouring Authorities
are doing little or nothing as compared with the demands which he
thinks necessary. At the same time that the rigid inspection of
meat, and its protection from contamination is demanded, we have
side by side in the same street exposed to all the desiccated horse
dung, dried sputum, and other things from the street, such things
as dates, figs, and fresh fruit which are consumed raw, and sweets
sold from barrows and pedlars' trays, which are unprotected and
are all liable to be contaminated.
In view of the fact that practically every article of meat is only
surface contaminated, and is submitted to adequate heating to