The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-02 00:00:00

IRELAND.

" Commissariat Relief Office, Dublin Castle,
20th January, 18,17.,
"Sir,—Commissary Gt neral Sir R. Routh desires to
state, that in consequence of the distress prevailing in
districts where the union workhouses are full or unavail-
able, his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant has authoi iscd
the recommendation of grants in an augmented ratio on
subscriptions, having reference to the extent of destitu-
tion in each district.
" Where much distress exists, the grants will be equal
to the subscriptions. In some cases a greater amount
will be recommended.
" Under the circumstances adverted to in the first pa-
ragraph, the Government regulations allow of gratuitous
issues. to •the infant poor, to widows, orphans, and chil-
dren where the supporting member of the. family is inca-
pable from sickness or oVier cause to maintain them.
"To persons requiring relief on such grounds, the
food is a free gift of charity ; but when the committee
sell, it is not desirable to do so under cost price, for it
is an object .to maintain the funds of the committee as
unimpaired as possible, so as to make them applicable to
the whole season.
" Donations granted before the present regulations
was made cannot now be enlarged ; but the lesser ratio
of such grants will be considered whenever lists of ad-
ditional subscriptions shall be received from the same
relief districts.
" Subscriptions and. donations in aid of them, may be
appropriated, where a distinction is necessary, to loca-
lities for which the sums subscribed shall have been in-
tended by the contributors ; but must still be managed
by the committee, or a sub-committee of its members.
"It is particularly requested that the certificate re-
quired by the 27th article of the general instructions may
41Q„,S,t 1 tit earkli seksc rip tion list.
II are plaued<ist, Law
disposal of relief committees appointed by the-lieutenants
of counties, in the manner pointed out by the instructions
of Government, issued through this office.
" Where such committees do not exist, application may
be wade to the lieutenant of the county, to form them
when necessary.
" The food considered to be best suited for gratuitous
relief is soup. This should also be provided for sale,
where practicable, with a view of economising the con-
sumption of corn.
"Inquiries being frequently made as to the payment
of salaries to the secretaries of relief committees, this
opportunity is made availaWe for recommending, that
in future a member of the committee be requested to act
as secretary, and that a clerk be employed occasionally,
as required, and paid out of the relief fund.
. .

_
" Where secretaries have been already employed in
expectation of receiving salaries, these can only be paid
where relief funds have been formed, there being no
other source from which the expenses incurred by com-
mittees can he defrayed.—l have the honour to be, Sir,
your obedient servant,

" W. STANLEY, Secretary."

SLAUGHTER HOUSES.

The slaughtering of animals in town is necessarily
attended by circumstances which render the practice in-
jurious to the health of the community; and it is very
questionable whether any regulations, short of prohibi-
tion, will materially amend the present state of things.
It is no doubt possible to abolish private establishments
of this kind, and to compel all parties to make use of
those specially provided for the purpose; but as long as
the practice itself is permitted within the precincts of
towns, so long will it be a public nuisance, requiring
removal.

The views expressed on this subject, in the second re-
port of the Sanatory Commissioners, are very decided,
and, we think, perfectly warranted by the facts of the
case. The Commissioners state that—

" The effluvia arising from the blood and the entrails
of animals, W het e recently slaughtered, renders the carry-
ing on of such business in the precincts of large towns
incompatible with due sanatory regulations, even when
the offal and filth are speedily and effectually removed.
In scarcely one instance, however, in which shambles or
slaughter-houses have come under the observation of
Commissioners, either in the metropolis or in provincial
cities and towns, have there been found in force any
regulations or authoritative supervision to compel the
speedy and regular removal of offal from, or the efficient
cleansing of such places. They have, on the contrary,
been found to be, almost without exception, centres of
the diffusion of noisome influences, affecting, with more
or less intensity, the immediate vicinity, deteriorating
the sanatory coadition of the surrounding pOpulation,
commonly poor and dense, as rtcorded in the local re-
ports of the Commissioners, and in a more remote degree
vitiating the general atmosphere of the town, and thus
tiecoming a nuisance to the inhabitants at large."
It may be laid down as a general principle, that all the
towns of England suffer more or less in this way ; and
that a thorough change is needful. In the " Report on the
Sanatory Condition of Bristol," it is stated, that—
" Slaughter-houses in Bristol are scattered over the
town without any special regulations. Very frequently
they are situated in unventilated courts, and are much
complained ot; both by medical witnesses and by the in-
habitants of the courts themselves."

Dr. Reid, in his "Report on the Northern Cities and
Towns," states that,—
"Private slaughter-houses formed on the whole the
most extreme subjects of complaint, and to such an ex
tent do they prevail, and so little are they confined to
particular sites, that one of the worst cases occurs in a
central street in Newcastle, or, at least, immediately ad-
joining it."

Dr. Reid further gives it as his opinion, that—
"ln all drained and low-lying districts, slaughter-
houses very often, if not always, sustain a perpetual
malaria around the neighbouring habitations : they are
a fruitful source of fever and other diseases.
Similar evidence is given by Dr. Shapter in his report
on Exeter. He says:
" More inconvenience is suffered from the keeping of
pigs and the nuisance of slaughter-houses; both these
nuisances are most urgent, and prevail to a greater ex-
tent than is generally supposed, and by the poor obliged
to live within their influence is much complained of.
Cases frequently occur of serious fevers, nervous pains,
and sickness of stomach, which they refer entirely to
swallowing' bad smells from these resources."
Similar evils also exist to a great extent in the Lanca-
shire towns. Dr. Lyon Playfair says in his report, that,
from the state of the law,

" If these slaughter-houses be in private courts they
are permitted to remain, however injurious to the in-
habitants, and in whatever state of filth they may be
kept. Thus, in the township of Manchester alone there
are seventy-seven slaughter-houses (in many instances
six or eight butchers killing at the same place); but all
these are without regulations. In Bolton, for example,
found several courts in which the middens attach. d to

the slaughter-houses were filled with the offal of the
slaughtered animals, and had not been cleansed for at
least two months. In other towns I have found slaughter-
houses below dwelling-houses, the smell in which was
most insufferable, and in many of these dwellings the in-
habitants looked pale and sickly, and diarrhoea fre-
quently prevailed, although absent from the courts con-
tiguous."
The foregoing extracts will be sufficient to show the
general bearing of the matter under consideration on the
public health and comfort, but they do not comprehend
all that is objectionable; for the commissioners state
that "A second evil and nuisance, necessarily contingent
upon the locality of slaughter-houses, however strin-
gently supervised and regulated, in the midst of large
and populous towns, is the quantity of animal ordure
deposited upon the public streets and thoroughfares
leading to such slaughter-houses, which, besides forming
a most offensive addition to the ordinary surface filth,
excites and accelerates its decomposition. This evil is
augmented in the ratio of the size of the town ; and
where, as in London, most of the surface filth of the
streets is washed down into the sewers, the continual
passage of cattle, sheep, and pigs, in the neighbourhood
of the antra mural slaughter-houses, must materially in-
crease the amount of that decomposing matter, the ema-
nations of which are constantly escaping from the un-
trapped gully-holes, to infect the atmosphere of the
metropolis. Nor ought the occasionally fatal injuries,
and the constant peril of life and limb incurred by the
inhabitants of large towns, the streets of which are so

frequently traversed by goaded and over-driven cattle, to
be overlooked in an enumeration of the inevitable evils of

slaughter-houses situated in the crowded parts of towns,
and as strengthening the more general sanatory grounds
for urging upon the Legislature the expediency of abo
lishing them, and of establishing properly constructed
and efficiently regulated places for slaughtering cattle in
the suburbs."
In, these opinions we entirely concur ; for we believe
that nothing short of the absolute prohibition of
slaughter-houses in towns will afford an adequate re-
medy. The poor, in this as in other things, are the chief
sufferers ; and it matters little whether they be subject
to nuisance from private shambles or public establish-
ments, for in either case the injury is inflicted. The
situation of the public slaughter-houses in Liverpool
renders them a source of great annoyance to the neigh-
bourhood, and it is not the less an offence against right
feeling that they are placed amidst the dwellings of the
industrious classes. We have learned on competent
authority that the noisome exhalations which proceed
from them are found to produce the usual effec:s ob.
served in other towns, such as diarrhoea, sickness,
nervous complaints, &c. ; and persons suffering from
these diseases have been obliged to change their r( :Ili-
dence before recovery could take place. The value of
property has also, in some instances, been deteriorated.
. snatl
e Act
pu tr,
~
It is proposed by the Sanatory Improvhe(m)le(
limit the slaughtering of animals, to
posaesh,otoon to the publicthose l
establishments.oealitieswhere Trhtheirs wewailrlenoprdiovualt)et
he
shambles, but it will increase the nuisance arising from
publicoh
ss slaughter-houses.
gt
the
year
t er - ho uses .
1809,
such an extent from theth ecitv
theferPe
dr Previous
existenceoPari so
fh apdrivsautf-
shambles, that it was determined to aboh}h them entire], ,
and erect five vast abbatoirs beyond the boundaries of

the city, and at nearly equal distances from each °Weir.
These abbatoirs are exceedingly well conducted, and r‘e-
turn a revenue of between 40,090/. and 50,000 L a=3;eare
They are described by an intelligent writer in the fol—
lowing words :
" The slaughter-houses, which are considered the
nuisance and disgrace of the English metropolis, are
placed in the outskirts of Paris, and under the inspection
of the police. The slaughter-house of Montmartre rivals
many of the public buildings in its external appearance.
It is no less than 1,074 feet in length, and 384 in depth,
and is watered by sluices from the Ourcq. On entering
it, the stranger perceives no disagreeable smell ; he wit-
nesses no disgusting sight, and often he would not sus-
pect the purpose to which theibuilding is devoted. The
English traveller should not fail to visit these useful
edifices. lie will return with a wish to reform those
nuisances, and abodes of cruelty, filth, and pestilence,
which disgust him in the capital of his own country."
The other abattoirs of Paris are—that of Menil,
montant, which is about 870 feet long by about 750 in
breadth; the abattoir de brenello, about 600 feet long
by 480 ; and the abattoirs of Ville nit and Roule,
which are somewhat smaller. In all of them there are
c. rain great principle, kept in view, namely, sufficient
isolation from inhatited buildings—a spacious area—
pr,p,r inspection—thorough cleanliness, and a large
supply of wL.ter. When sanatory police is bettt
understood in this country then it is at present, oar
public bodies will be more alive to the importance of
this sutibi jattc t
a;
ffannr dd
dn o b
by e ttt
he re e
ym pol ef cr. o
au
rl s
.b_e
Lf
vl leorpwoed
ol
Health qf Towns' Advocate.

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