MUNICIPAL HYGIENE 719 



would receive considerable assistance. No medical man 

 called upon to legislate on this subject, which essentially 

 belongs to the veterinary profession, can form any notion 

 of the rapidity of putrefactive changes in the herbivora. 

 Shaw rightly proposes that a penalty should be attached 

 to keeping dead animals on the premises longer than is 

 absolutely necessary for their removal ; but this is also a 

 matter for the education of the public, who should be 

 instructed that there is a vast difference between the 

 keeping powers of a human cadaver and that of a horse or 

 ruminant. 



The sanitary aspect of this question is twofold, for not 

 only does air-poisoning occur of the premises where the 

 death took place, but it is this class of carcase which adds 

 so seriously to the nuisance of a knacker's yard. 



We know, of course, that the disembowelment of such a 

 case delays putrefactive changes for some little time, but 

 it is doubtful how far this simple procedure is capable of 

 general application. 



Knackeries from their very nature are offensive, but this 

 is intensified by the want of cleanliness and care shown ; 

 bones, fat, blood, viscera, hides, hair, and so forth in various 

 stages of change are practically always met with. The 

 boiling processes take place in the slaughtering department; 

 the air is saturated with moisture, and the odour of cooked 

 flesh, a good deal of which is far from above suspicion, 

 pervades the place, while the fat and decaying bones lend 

 a penetrating smell which is most difficult to get rid of 

 even in the open air. 



That portion of the premises where animals are actually 

 destroyed, should be fitted up on the same sanitary prin- 

 ciples as an ordinary abattoir as regards lighting, ventila- 

 tion, drainage, water-supply, impervious flooring and walls, 

 for which see p. 656. 



The flesh boiling process, and that of fat extraction, if 

 practised, should be in a separate place, and carried out 

 under conditions which produce as Httle effluvium as 

 possible. Cooking operations should be effected in steam- 



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