Slaughterhouses

Slaughterhouses are places set apart by municipal or other authority for the killing of cattle and other animals, with a view to avoiding the insanitary effects of having animals killed in all sorts of holes and corners amid human habitations, and to maintaining a better opportunity of inspecting the condition and quality of meat offered for consumption. Napoleon in 1818 established abattoirs at Paris, and Edinburgh followed the example in 1851, to be followed by London, which established a slaughterhouse at Islington in 1855. At the present time there are few towns of any pretension which do not possess these institutions. As a good example of them are the Lairages at Liverpool, where a cargo of beasts is quickly slaughtered, and the carcases hung up in well-arranged and ventilated cooling-sheds. The foreign cattle market, Deptford, is another example. The principal regulations for building and carrying on slaughterbouses are in the direction of cleanliness, bealth, and scientific operation.