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tial features of an establishment to cope with them, and
capable of reducing to a minimum all nuisances that at
present beset, and will in future embarrass, the sanitary authorities
of cities that neglect to legislate for civic purification.
I am satisfied that all noxious trades must sooner or later be
regulated under stringent municipal bye-laws, and that they
cannot be left entirely to private speculation.
The site most convenient for the establishing of public
abattoirs should be an open space or field, not farther
distant in the suburbs of a town or citv than a short drive or
walk; it should be suitable for one or more blocks of building;
it should be near a railway, water communication, or the cattle
market, and the following buildings should bo contiguous, but
distinct from each other:—
1. Slaughter-house for bullocks, sheep, and pigs, with good water
supply at high pressure; open ventilation, good drainage, asphalte
floor, with convenience for the removal of blood, hides, offal, and
carcases of animals.
2. A set of cattle pens, or layerage, with store for fodder,
water trough, facility for cleansing, and the removal of manure, &c.
3. An engine and boiler house, with tall chimney for carrying off
gases, according to the necessity of trade—with sufficient steam
power for the tallow-melting tanks, grease works, bone-boiling,
glue-making, &c.; hot water for washing and cleansing.
4. A store-house for hides, for bones, wool, hair, &c.; and the blood
and offal, and all offensive materials, to be kept in covered tanks. The
making of animal charcoal may be desirable, and other processes
which I need not mention here.
5. In part of the same premises, or an adjoining field, should be
a tanpit, the knacker's yard, with suitable appliances.
6. Dwellings for men and stabling for horses may have to be provided
for those who have to be employed on the premises, or for
carrying out the work.
The main points I endeavour to prove arc these:—
1. The impracticability of attempting to reconstruct the
old private slaughter-houses in built up parts of towns.
2. The impossibility of securing, in the present private
slaughter-houses, sufficient air space, means of cleansing, and
drainage to prevent them from becoming nuisances injurious
to the health of people living in their vicinity—nuisances
arising from the pollution of the air, drains, and subsoil.
3. The remedy I propose is the erection of abattoirs inconvenient
suburban localities, or where the objectionable practice
of driving cattle in streets and thoroughfares of towns can be
avoided; where cattle can be kept sweet and clcan in well-kept