MUNICIPAL HYGIENE 655 



in their area, and if steadily enforced the system of public 

 abattoirs for all towns and cities would be gradually intro- 

 duced. 



, The greatest difficulty has been experienced in educating 

 the public mind to the necessity of public abattoirs, and 

 private vested interests in this, as in everything else, have 

 had primary consideration. Still, Glasgow is an example 

 of what can be overcome by steady persistence. The muni- 

 cipality of this enlightened city erected public abattoirs 

 forty years before they obtained the needful powers to 

 enforce their use, and suppress private establishments. 



Scotland has in the matter of slaughter-houses and meat 

 inspection been far ahead of the times. For instance, she 

 refuses to recognise any distinction between houses regis- 

 tered or licensed, they are treated alike, and both have to 

 take out a license annually. 



Further, and this is of the utmost importance, no private 

 slaughter-houses of any kind are permitted to exist in any 

 Burgh in Scotland once a public abattoir has been provided. 

 In this way, in the immense city of Glasgow and the city 

 of Edinburgh, not a single private slaughter-house exists ! 



In Ireland the private slaughter-house exists, and both 

 at Belfast and Dublin, where public abattoirs are available, 

 every possible means is adopted of evading the system of 

 meat inspection which a public abattoir insists on. In the 

 case of Belfast, private slaughter-houses were erected outside 

 the municipal boundary ; while in the case of Dublin the 

 abattoir for the City having been accidentally built a few 

 feet outside the municipal boundary, could only be brought 

 within the boundary by the Dublin Corporation Act, 1890, 

 at the expense of permanent licenses being granted to all 

 slaughter-houses then holding temporary licenses, so that 

 in future compensation would be necessary before these 

 could be closed. 



Thus, as the Eoyal Commission on Tuberculosis pointed 

 out, a fine public abattoir, the best in the United Kingdom, 

 is rendered comparatively useless. It would appear from 

 the reports of the Commissioners that the chief fault to 



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