FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 57 



in the markets themselves, when these methods are in such com- 

 mon use in ocean transit, whole cargoes of frozen meats, being 

 daily brought to London from all quarters of the globe, even 

 from New Zealand. Of the fish coming to London from adjoin- 

 ing waters, I found those that came by railway in a worse con- 

 dition than those that came by water. 



Aside from the more frequent handlings of railway-borne fish, 

 the unwholesome condition of unsuitable cars had, doubtless, 

 considerable to do with their deterioration. No objection could 

 be made against many of the cars run on the special fish trains 

 to London, for they were as good, perhaps, as any of an old and 

 obsolete style ; but there were others for sanitary reasons that 

 would have not been permitted to run were it not for a blunted 

 and indifferent public sentiment. I shall not speak of these my- 

 self, but state the case through the words of others. 



A witness before the corporation said: "You all think we 

 load our fish in proper fish trucks. That is a great mistake. 

 We load it nearly all in bullock trucks not cleaned out. Seven 

 out of ten come in ordinary bullock trucks." 



Another witness stated that " most of the fish comes in old 

 cattle trucks, lime trucks, manure trucks, or any kind of truck 

 that happens to be handy at the station. I have had plenty of 

 barrels which had contracted so much filth that my man had to 

 wash them before taking them on his back." 



" Were you ever on the platform when a return Grimsby fish 

 van was being shunted ?" asks an English editor. " If you 

 were, you are not likely to forget it." Having stood on the plat- 

 form, candor, a love of truth, and an olfactory not over-sensitive 

 either, will not permit us to disagree with this gentleman, for 

 truly, as he says, "the stench is abominable, and there is little 

 wonder that fish are condemned when they arrive at the markets." 



Such a nauseating condition of things seems almost incredible 

 to us Americans familiar with the cleanly-kept refrigerator cars 

 fitted up by Chase, Ridgway and others, thousands of which bear 

 fresh meat and fish to and from island points hundreds of miles 

 distant, yea, even from ocean to ocean. But still more incredi- 

 ble is it that railways in the British Isles have not long since 

 found it to their selfish interests, if not th^ public welfare, to 



