Page:Description of the Abattoirs of Paris.djvu/13

Rh Montmartre it is pumped up into a reservoir, H, by a steam-engine. At Grenelle the celebrated artesian well affords an ample quantity, but the water being naturally warm, it is allowed to cool before it is used. At Ville Juif the water is pumped up by horse power. The two other abattoirs are supplied by a water company.

On each side of the entrance gates are the lodges, D, in which the superintendents and police reside, and where the office of the administration is kept. At the commencement of 1847, a new system of collecting the dues of the abattoirs was introduced, by which, instead of charging so much per head for the cattle upon entering, and weighing the tallow, all the meat which leaves the abattoirs is now weighed and a uniform rate of toll is charged; toll- houses have thus become necessary, and one is therefore erected in each abattoir, opposite to the entrance, having a weighing machine attached to it.

The returns of the annual expenditure and income of these establishments, prove that, as well as being highly important in the internal economy of the metropolis of France, they are profitable in a commercial point of view.

It is essential to impress these facts very strongly, because, great as the cost of their erection in this country must be, any doubts as to their becoming profitable investments will be removed, and thus one great objection to their introduction be obviated.

The population of Paris is about a million, and the following table gives the number of cattle which have been slaughtered during the last four years at all the abattoirs :-

The original cost of the five abattoirs was about £680,000, including the purchase of land and every contingency; but there is no account as to the cost of each.

The following is a general statement of the income and expenditure of all the abattoirs in 1846: