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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. F. 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 plan and section (figs. 95, 96) of one of the beef slaughter-houses, it will be seen that each covers a space 38 feet wide by 30 long, or 1140 square feet. Out of this space a room 20 feet square is taken, with double walls (2 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 15 to 20 tons capacity, built over the cool-room and connected with it. The circulation of air between the cool-room and the ice-box is regulated by means of valves in the air-ducts. The remaining

space, 15 feet wide, is used for slaughtering the [ cattle. The floor is of double plank, calked watertight 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, oal, &c., are dropped into separate iron tanks on wheels in the basement. The slaughtering-place 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 waggons. The cool-rooms are 12 feet 6 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. and cold water is supplied to each slaughter-house. The basement story under the slaughter-houses is f brick walls, with a concrete floor, and has ample drainage. It extends, without partition, 380 feet from one end of the block to the other. In this story, under the trap-doors, are the iron tanks (on wheels) to receive the hides, heads, feet, tallow, tripe, blood, and offal. When filled, the tanks are wheeled into the rendering-house and their contents distributed-the hides being left in the basement, and the blood and offal taken to the rendering-tanks and driers by means of elevators.

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The sheep slaughter-houses are similarly arranged with cool-room, slaughtering-place, &c.

The rendering-house, which forms the centre of the whole group of the abattoir, is 200 feet by 80 feet, and four stories high, including a brick basement, which has a concrete floor like the basements of the slaughter houses. The accompanying section drawings (fig. 97) show the rendering-tanks in the third story suspended from the fourth floor. These tanks open at the top, on the level of the floor of the fourth story, where the offal is emptied into them from the *mall "tanks on wheels" coming from the slaughterbouses.

After the rendering-tanks are filled, the openings are closed and the contents cooked by steam. After sufficient cooking, the contents are dropped out of the tanks by openings at the bottom of them in the third story. Here the fat is separated from the watery part, and from the scrap or tankings, which latter portion is put into the driers. The blood from the slaughter-houses is also here put into the driers. The water is evaporated by steam-heat, and the residuum comes out as dry animal matter. This is passed through a mill and ground to powder. From the mill the powder drops into barrels, and is packed for market.

By an ingenious system of pipes the steam and offensive gases from the rendering - tanks and driers are passed through a condensing apparatus, where the steam becomes water, and the remaining gases are then mixed with common air, and, by means of a blower, are forced down and under the fires of the steam-boilers. After being thus purified by fire they are finally discharged through a chimney 160 feet high. The rendering process thus conducted gives no odour. There is nothing offensive about the fertiliser, and what slight odour it possesses is wholly imperceptible after it is packed.

The boiler and engine house, of brick, stand quite near the rendering-house, and around the central smoke-flue are constructed four large flues or shafts for ventilating the various rooms of the renderinghouse. The boiler-house is planned for ten boilers; the engine-room for two fifty-horse-power engines. There is also a powerful steam-pump for throwing

water.

The six months which have passed since the abattoir was opened have fully proved, that it is possible to carry on a great slaughtering and rendering establishment without its being offensive either to the workmen in it or to the community around it.

For the purposes of the Public Health (England) Act, 1875, the word "slaughterhouse" includes the buildings and places commonly called slaughter-houses and knackers' yards, and any building or place used for slaughtering cattle, horses, or animals of any description for sale.

Any urban authority may, if they think fit, provide slaughter-houses, and they are to make bylaws with respect to the management and charges for the use of any slaughterhouses so provided; and for the purpose of enabling any urban authority to regulate slaughter-houses within their district, the provisions of the Towns Improvement Clauses Act, 1847, with respect to slaughter-houses are incorporated with the Public Health Act.

But the rights, powers, and privileges of any persons under any local Act passed before the Public Health Act, 1848, with regard to the working, &c., of slaughter-houses, are not to be affected. (P. H., s. 169.)

The owner or occupier of any slaughterhouse licensed or registered under the Public Health Act, must within one month after the licensing or registration of the premises, affix,

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and keep undefaced and legible on some conspicuous place on the premises, a notice with the words "Licensed slaughter-house," or "Registered slaughter-house," as the case may be.

Any person who makes default in this respect, or neglects or refuses to affix or renew such notice after requisition in writing from the urban authority, is liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds for every such offence, and of ten shillings for every day during which such offence continues after conviction.--(P. H., s. 170.)

There are special Acts applying to the metropolis with regard to the slaughtering of cattle. New slaughter-houses cannot be established without the sanction of the local authority; they are to be regulated by bylaws, and to be duly licensed (37 & 38 Vict. c. 37, &c.) See FOOD, MEAT, &c.

Slops-By slop-water is usually meant the ordinary liquid refuse of a household, excluding fæcal matter. Ordinarily speaking, it is composed of urine, soapy matters, fatty substances, and various organic matters in suspension and solution: it is indeed undoubted sewage, but although it is actually sewage, there appears a doubt whether in a legal sense it comes under that name; for the legal advisers of the Local Government Board, basing their opinion upon the case of Kindersley, V. C., in Sutton v. Mayor of Norwich, 31 L. T. 380, state that "it appears to them that mere slop-water, without fæcal matter, is not sewage within the strict meaning of that term." -(Letter from the Local Government Board to Dr. Cornelius Fox, Public Health, No. 28, vol. ii.)

The letter even goes the length of stating that the Local Government Board would not consider "it illegal under ordinary circumstances to convey slop - water into a canal communicating with a river, or with the sea, if the volume of the slop-water is but small as compared with that of the water in the canal;" and further, that "it might not be illegal to convey the slop-water, whether deodorised or not, into a watercourse, but in such a case there might be a breach of private rights."-(Op. cit.)

There can be little doubt that to act upon this opinion would cause great danger to the public health, for allowing that it is possible to be sure that the slop-water contains no fecal matter, there is no evidence to show but that the urine may propagate disease-e.g., every person suffering from scarlet fever casts off from his kidneys thousands of epithelial cells, which in all human probability are capable of conveying contagion.

Putting, then, on one side, the question of pouring slops into watercourses and canals, there are several ways of dealing with them. (1) In places where there is a system of properly-flushed sewers, the slops are naturally thrown into the drains and go with the sewage; but where there is a dry system of disposal, and no drains, this cannot be done, and other means must be adopted, one of the best of which is (2) to have a Roger Field's tank (see SEWAGE, TANKS, &c.) and pipes leading from thence into a field, beneath the soil. But this of course can only be done under certain circumstances, for there are cases in which both of the foregoing remedies are impossible: in such cases, either (3) a properly-constructed tank must be made, or some simple apparatus constructed, like Dr. Bond's slop-tub, and the slops deodorised.

Dr. Bond's slop-tub is a common wooden barrel of from 40 to 60 gallons capacity. On the top of the barrel is a loose metallic sieve to prevent superfluous solids-such as scrubbing-brushes, potato-peelings, &c.-from finding their way into the barrel. At the bottom of the sieve is a conical receiver for collecting the precipitate, with a vent-hole for running it off. A floating strainer attached to an indiarubber tube, which communicates with a tap placed at the lower portion of the barrel, completes the apparatus. To use it, some disinfectant-such as a mixture of ferrous and aluminic sulphates-is added from time to time, and the tub allowed to get full. When full it must stand a little time, and then a perfectly clear liquid can be drawn off, leaving a fatty sediment, which if mixed with meal is said to be a good food for pigs. Dr. Bond, however, very wisely does not recommend urine to be mixed with ordinary slops, but treated separately, or, after being first acidified, thrown into some suitable place.

It is difficult to imagine places so situated as not to allow one of the three methods of slop disposal given to be adopted.

Smallpox (Variola)-Smallpox is an infectious fever, attended with a marked and peculiar eruption.

History. Without doubt, smallpox is one of the most ancient, as it is one of the most frightful diseases which ever afflicted humanity. Ancient Chinese and Brahmin manuscripts 3366 years old are said to refer distinctly to epidemics of smallpox. The Chinese call it the "bean disease," and trace it to the reign of the first emperor of the (Eastern) Han dynasty, Kwang Wu, who reigned A.D. 25-28. It is said to have been imported from some portion of Central Asia, or from some part of South-Western China, by

some Chinese troops returning from a foreign campaign.

The earliest Chinese work on smallpox is a treatise called "Wan-jin-shi-tau-chin-lun," published in 1323, from which it appears that they have practised inoculation more than a thousand years.

Allowing that it entered Europe from the East, the exact date of its introduction is unknown, but it is certain that the Arabian army was attacked by it at the siege of Mecca in A.D. 569, and that in 570 it was both in France and Italy. In the eighth century all Europe was infected with it, the virus having been in many instances disseminated by the Saracens; and in the same century it was probably introduced into England, where it soon became naturalised.

The history of smallpox in England naturally divides itself into three parts-viz., the first period, from the eleventh and twelfth centuries to 1721, in which period it was altogether unchecked; the second epoch, from 1721 to 1802, during which it was palliated by inoculation; and the last, from 1802 up to the present time, during which it has been partly prevented by vaccination. The first period was one of the utmost severity; it raged from time to time throughout England in a horrible manner, the most fatal of all contagious disorders. Sir Gilbert Blane estimated that smallpox destroyed a hundred for every one that perished by the plague; and Dr. Black estimated the annual mortality from smallpox during this period, in Europe, to be 494,000.

In the second period, inoculation was introduced from Constantinople by Lady Wortley Montague (1721). This operation had, as we have mentioned, been practised from a very remote period by the Chinese, who inserted a smallpox crust or scab in the nose. It had also been practised one hundred years before this date in Wales, the method there being known as that of "buying the smallpox." The effect of inoculation was to induce a

milder disease, the mortality from natural smallpox in those times being one in five; in inoculated smallpox, first one in fifty, and then when greater care was taken and more skilful operators possible, one in five hundred. Its value as a sanitary measure in those times was great, and this Dr. Guy proves by taking the ratios of deaths reduced to the common standard of a million for three decades-one ending 1719, in which no inoculation was practised; a second decade ending 1749, of partial inoculation; a third ending 1799, of general inoculation. For the first the figures are 31,416; for the second, 28,282; and for the third, 22,863.

At the same time it must be remembered that inoculation propagated smallpox, and that many instances occurred in which the natural disease was caught by contact from an inoculated person, that inoculation was far from being altogether safe, and that disfigurement and blindness often came from inoculation as well as from the ordinary kind. It must also be observed that during the whole eighty years 1721-1802, fatal epidemics of smallpox were very frequent, the London Bills of Mortality showing 9827 deaths from this cause alone during the last five years of the eighteenth century.

In 1801 Dr. Jenner's discovery of the prophylactic properties of vaccination (see VACCINATION) began to be widely known (vacci nation was actually introduced in 1797, and Jenner published the results of his experi ments in 1798), but it was not practised to anything like a general extent for a few years. The actual numbers of the vaccinated in 18/1 are said to have been about 6000; but its marvellous power was soon felt, and is imperishable in the records of humanity. Divid ing the last forty unvaccinated years of the eighteenth century into four decades, and taking six decades of the vaccinated nineteenth century, up to 1800, by calculating out the ratio of deaths from smallpox to deaths from all causes, we get the fol lowing remarkable series: For the four unvaccinated decades, 108, 98, 87, 88; for the six vaccinated decades, 64, 42, 32, 23, 16, 11.

These figures alone show what vaccination can do. That vaccination properly carried out all over the world would actually extinguish the disease there can be little doubt; but on the other hand, that vaccination slovenly performed (and that only once) imperfectly protects a nation, is proved by the recent epidemic, lasting no less than a year and a half, which has swept over our own isles, Europe, and America.

The following figures are compiled by Dr. Farr from the Bills of Mortality, and show the same fact in a somewhat different way. The figures relate to London alone, and are ratios of average annual deaths from smpox and from all causes to 100,000 of the population in six groups of years :

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Deaths per 100,000 living. | 7876; Portsmouth, 39; Norwich, 245; BrisDeaths from Smallpox. Smallpox. All Causes. tol, 45; Wolverhampton, 284; Birmingham, 61; Leicester, 11; Nottingham, 144; Liverpool, 1919; Manchester, 267; Salford, 227; Bradford, 5; Leeds, 43; Sheffield, 406; Hull, 57; Sunderland, 850; Newcastle-on-Tyne, 695.

This epidemic has been cited by the antivaccinators as an argument on their side; yet the following table, showing the duration and the absolute and relative fatality of the smallpox epidemics which prevailed in London since the Registration Act came into operation, proves that smallpox has prevailed epidemically in twenty-one and a half years only, or 61 per cent., of the whole thirty-five, 1837-71-a striking difference when compared with the former tables :

Year.

1838

3517

208

2876

1839

634

34

2428

1840

1235

65

2498

1841

1053

54

2404

1842

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Although this table terminates with the enormous mortality of over 7000, yet it shows very conclusively that vaccination prevented smallpox from making any great ravagesuntil, in fact, immunity produced carelessness, and, practically speaking, vaccination came to be but imperfectly performed in the first instance, while secondary vaccination was entirely omitted. The scarred and seamed faces, the blind and deaf, had faded from the memory of the present generation; the effects of the disease before Jenner's discovery only lived in history, in prints, caricatures, and lampoons. Many an old country surgeon had scarcely seen half-a-dozen cases of smallpox in his life, and those of a mild and discrete type, when suddenly in the latter part of 1870 smallpox began to increase, and in the years 1871 and 1872 attained most alarming proportions. There was not a town of any size in all England which did not suffer; nor was it confined to this country. It raged in Paris, Vienna, Holland, America, and other places. But in all countries, and in all places, observant men noticed that the thoroughly vaccinated took the disease lightly or not at all, while the worst and most fatal cases were those on whose arms the autograph of Jenner was absent. The maximum mortality in London was attained in May 1871, and it then gradually declined and faded away towards the middle of the year 1872. The deaths from smallpox in the principal large cities in 1871 were as follows: London,

Nature of Smallpox.-The disease is essentially an infectious one. The contagion is conveyed in minute particles of living matter taken from a pustule. If this substance is inserted into the skin, or breathed so as to enter the circulation of an unprotected subject, this living matter, which may be so minute as scarcely to be seen with the naked eye, divides and multiplies within the body, and shows its effects by high fever, followed by the breaking forth, the erupting, of little pimples, each of a peculiar oval shape, with a central depression. If these pimples are solitary, each with a space around it, it is called discrete; if the pustules are so thick that they stand close together so that there is no space between, and they appear to, and actually do, run into one another, it is then called confluent.

General Course of the Discase.-Whether the smallpox be distinct or confluent, inoculated or natural, its course may be divided into-(1) the period of incubation; (2) the febrile stage; (3) the exudative stage; (4) the suppurative stage. The first and second periods are probably non-infectious, the third and fourth are most certainly infectious.

The periods of incubation of all zymotic diseases have a practical sanitary importance, especially as regards quarantine, isolation, &c. This period in ordinary smallpox is between thirteen and fourteen days, so that persons coming from an infected district cannot be pronounced safe until about eighteen days have elapsed. On the other hand, in the

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