718 VETEEINAEY HYGIENE 



and immediate action, which municipalities would do well 

 to anticipate. 



The following suggestion made by Shaw is worthy of 

 their careful attention, viz., the purchase of all existing 

 knackers' yards, their reconstruction, and leasing to pro- 

 perly qualified persons under rigid restrictions, or even 

 worked by the municipality itself. There are other alterna- 

 tive suggestions made by the same authority, but they do 

 not appear to us to be so practically useful as the above, 

 nor to afford the same sanitary control. 



Speaking broadly, from a public point of view a knackery 

 is a place for the destruction of horses, and the reception 

 of all dead animals ; from a private point of view it is a 

 place where the money paid for the collection of the dead, 

 or of the living for destruction, may be recovered and as 

 large a profit as possible obtained on the investment. 



This profit is obtained by the sale of the various parts 

 of the body used in trade, all of which are capable of being 

 turned to useful advantage ; the hide, flesh, bones, blood, 

 fat, feet, hair, etc., have all an economic value, which, as 

 Shaw shows, is gradually getting less, but still at present 

 furnishes sufficient profit to carry on the trade as a volun- 

 tary concern. 



A knackery should also be a place where the bodies of 

 animals dead from or destroyed from infectious disease may 

 be destroyed either by fire or chemical means, so as to 

 prevent the spread of infection. For this purpose an 

 incinerator should form part of the equipment of every 

 well organized establishment, for there are bodies received 

 into these places in such a state of putrefaction as to render 

 the flesh quite unfit for utilization ; this is especially the 

 case in deaths from acute bowel or chest trouble in horses, 

 especially if any time has elapsed since death occurred. 



It is only those whose profession brings them in daily 

 contact with the sick, dying, and dead who can realize to 

 the full what this really means. 



If the human body would only putrefy and smell with 

 the same rapidity as that of herbivora, funeral reform 



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