DESCRIPTION OF THE ABATTOIR.

The following description of the Brighton abattoir is furnished by the architect, Mr. A. C. MARTIN :

The abattoir now building at Brighton is well placed on the bank of the Charles River, in the most westerly suburb of Boston, and about four miles from the centre of the city. The grounds are about fifty acres in extent, bounded on the longest side by the river, and conveniently situated with reference to the Watertown and Brighton cattle-markets, the Boston & Albany Railroad and the Watertown brauch of the Fitchburg Railroad.

Building operations were commenced, in the spring of 1872, by the butchers of Brighton under a charter granted by the legislature. The original plan contemplates a central building called the rendering-house, 200 feet by 80, and four stories high, around which are to be grouped ten or more blocks of slaughter-houses, with the necessary cattle-sheds, yards, stables, tripe-works, engine and boiler-house, etc. At the present time a block of ten beef slaughter-houses, and another block of five sheep slaughter-houses, with the requisite cattle-sheds, yards and stables, have been built and are now occupied. Several other beef slaughter-houses are in progress; one of these will be ready for use in a few weeks. The rendering-house, with the boiler and engine-house, has also been finished and the necessary machinery and steam apparatus put into the buildings.

Our abattoir differs from those in various countries of Europe in many respects. Foreign abattoirs have been built at public expense and are under the immediate charge of government officers; ours has been built by private enterprise and at private cost, its sanitary arrangements being controlled by the State Board of Health. In the foreign abattoirs the slaughter-houses are all built of masonry, and are one-story

high without basements.

The slaughtering is done upon stone or asphalt pavement. No provision is made for cooling the meat before it is sent to market, and the blood and offal are carted away from the premises. At Brighton, the buildings are all of wood, and are planned with reference to the individual interests of the butchers and their special modes of doing business.

The offal and the blood coming from each day's work are rendered and dried on the premises during the same day, and while they are yet perfectly fresh and untainted.

It has for a long time been the custom of the Brighton butchers to have, in connection with their slaughter-houses, a cooling-room, or refrigerator, in which the meat is kept at a temperature of 40° Fahr. for several days before sending it to market. These conditions required,

First, That the slaughtering should be done upon a raised floor, over a basement-story, for convenience of handling the blood and offal.

Second, That "cool-rooms" with ice-chambers over them should be provided for each slaughter-house.

By reference to the accompanying plan and section of one of the beef slaughter-houses, it will be seen that each covers a space 38 feet wide by 30 feet long, or 1,140 square feet. Out of this space a room twenty feet square is taken, with double walls (two feet thick) packed with fine shavings, for a "cool-room," in which the meat is hung for several days before being sent to market. The temperature is maintained in warm weather by the cold air from an ice-box of fifteen to twenty tons capacity built over the "cool-room" and connected with it. The circulation of air between the "coolroom" and the ice-box is regulated by means of valves in the air-ducts. The remaining space, fifteen feet wide, is used for slaughtering the cattle. The floor is of double plank, calked water-tight, like the deck of a ship, and laid upon iron beams with a slope to an iron gutter which catches the blood and conveys it below. There are several trap-doors in this floor, through which the hides, offal, etc., are dropped into separate iron tanks on wheels in the basement. The slaughteringplace opens to the rear upon the close-pen, the cattle-yards and sheds; and in front is the loading-shed, where the meat

is put into the wagons.

The cool-rooms are twelve feet six inches high. The slaughtering-places have the whole height of the building up into the roof, and are lighted by

windows above the roofs of the sheds. By means of pulleys. and shafting from the rendering-house, the cattle are hoisted for dressing, and the ice is lifted to the ice-chambers. Hot and cold water is supplied to each slaughter-house.