Page:Description of the Abattoirs of Paris.djvu/21

Rh the "blood-hole," which was not regularly emptied, nor was the other offal and dung conveyed away quickly enough. All these combined to render the present system seriously prejudicial, not only to the sanitary condition of the immediate neighbourhood, but to the whole metropolis.

It was remarkable that in England, where the advantages of the introduction of machinery and tools were so fully appreciated, such a stubborn adherence should be shown, to an antiquated and vicious course with respect to their markets, and such a want of perception of economy. By the present system, the drover was actually paid for depreciating the value of the animals, by his treatment of them, and it was deemed preferable to pay for the risk of an accident in the crowded streets, than to send the beasts for sale to a convenient spot in the suburbs. This was blindness enough, but it was difficult to imagine how, or why, the public would continue to submit to the annoyance, danger, and inconvenience to the traffic, as well as to the filth in the streets, caused by the passage of these droves of animals, when they had eventually to pay for it, in the shape of an increased price for meat, which really amounted to an enormous tax upon the public at large.

Mr. stated that in a treatise he had written on the subject, he had alluded to the propriety of all the manufactures connected with the use of the offal, being included in, or concentrated around, one establishment. The establishment of abattoirs, would also be of use, in ascertaining the consumption of meat in London, which at present there were no means of ascertaining. In Paris every butcher who killed meat paid a duty per pound on the meat leaving the abattoir; this he conceived to be a good system, as the butcher could lock up his meat in his store at the abattoir, without its being under the control of the Company; there was also a strict police at the gates which prevented anything like theft. He had no doubt, that when abattoirs were established in the metropolis, along with the different trades in connexion with them, the butchers would find they could kill their meat more economically than at present, and instead of the expense being three shillings and sixpence a head for cattle, it would not be more than one shilling and sixpence.

He thought abattoirs were desirable in every point of view. The offal was disposed of with much more difficulty in the country than