Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London, City of]
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used for feeding pigs, another method of treatment
has been adopted. As soon as the meat is seized it
is conveyed to the lock-up sheds, where it is kept
until the cart arrives for its conveyance to the depot
at the Deptford Foreign Cattle Market, where it is
destroyed. Immediately it is placed in the carts it
is treated with a sufficient quantity of crude carbolic
acid to taint it throughout its substance ; the
carts are then covered and locked, and are weighed,
so as to ascertain the weight of their contents. When
they arrive at Deptford they are again weighed, and
are unlocked by the proper officer. The meat is then
put into a large iron vertical cylinder, which can be
fastened so as to be air-tight, and it is submitted to the
action of high-pressure steam, until it is thoroughly
broken up into fat, muscular fibre, and bone. Each
of these has its technical uses, and they are collectively
of sufficient value to pay the expense of the
operation.
It will be seen from this that the sanitary duties of
the City are very multifarious, and that they have
largely increased since I had the honour of beingelected
your Medical Officer of Health ; for it has
devolved on me to co-ordinate the duties of my office,
and to extend them as occasion arose. It has also
been my duty to advise and report to you on a
multitude of sanitary subjects, as the condition of the
grave-yards and church vaults of the City; the
imperfection of mortality returns; the state of the