254

So far, however, as the milk-supply of the London poor isconcerned, regarded solely from the point of view of thesmall general provision shops’ supply, my observations,cursory though they were, have taught me these facts,which, of course, have been made the subject of commentbefore : That the working classes obtain the greater part of,if not almost all of, the raw milk which they and theirfamilies consume at small general provision shops ; that inmost of these shops the sanitary conditions are unfavourable,milk being kept in such a state as to render it an injuriousfood for infants ; and that in a large number of cases pre-cautions to preserve the milk from pollution are neglectedboth by the small shopkeepers and the customers. Themenace to infant life involved by impure milk is toowell known to require emphasis. During the year 1904about 19,000 infants under one year of age died in London.Of this number no less than 2347 died from epidemicdiarrhoea, the largest number who died from any one cause.It is needless to state that the occurrence of epidemicdiarrhoea amongst infants is attributed to improper nourish-ment, chiefly to impure milk. Voughan goes so far as toassert that nearly all cases of summer diarrhoea amonginfants are due to the presence of putrefactive or otherbacteria of decomposition in the milk. I am only recapitu-lating the fact that milk which has undergone certain fermen-tative changes, or which has been polluted by diit of anydescription or by flies, is especially dangerous as a food forinfants, a matter now of almost general knowledge, inorder to press home the point that the manner inwhich the milk-supply of London is controlled is susceptibleof much improvement and that the milk provided for theinfants of the poorer classes should be of the best possiblequality.The small general provision shops of London play a very

important part in the scheme of providing its poor inhabitantswith milk, and therefore if these establishments are to beallowed to continue to supply milk they should at least bemanaged in such a way that all unnecessary contaminationmay be avoided. When making my observations I entereda few of the regular milk shops both in the East-End ofLondon and in other metropolitan districts inhabited by poorpeople. I found that in these shops adequate precautions topreserve the milk from contamination were well observed.Why then do not the poor avail themselves of the opportu.nities thus afforded to obtain milk which is guarded from thepollution to which it is subjected in the small shops? Thereasons probably are that the small shops are more convenient for them, that they can buy the milk they requir(when they buy their other provisions, and, lastly, that the;can obtain credit at tne snops at wmcn they are accustomedto deal. Ignorance. too, in regard to the dangers of contami-nated milk, on the part of the London mother of the lowerclass, is a weighty feature of the situation and one which hasa great bearing on the sickness and mortality of infants.The London County Council makes regulations dealing with

the cleanliness of milk stores, milk shops, and milk vesselsand the precautions against infection to be taken by thepurveyors of milk and by persons selling milk by retail.These regulations are enforced by the metropolitan boroughcouncils which are also required to register all persons carry-ing on the trades of cowkeepers, dairymen, or purveyors ofmilk. In Shoreditch, at the end of 1904 there were on theregister 294 shops the proprietors of which were licensed to sellmilk. During 1904 3199 inspections were made. In Holbornduring the same period there were 171 such shops, and1160 inspections were made. In Shoreditch the inspectionsseem to have been numerous, but I can only state that thesmall provision shops selling milk which I visited in thatdistrict certainly did not observe precautions necessary topreserve the milk from pollution, nor, indeed, in any localityto which I went did I find these shops in such a condition asto conform in any respect to one’s ideas of what a milk shopshould be. I may have been unfortunate in the selection ofshops but I am of the opinion that a deplorable laxness isthe rule rather than the exception in the management ofsmall general provision shops in London in which milk issold. The sale of milk in provision shops is but one phaseof the milk question. It is, nevertheless, an importantphase and is well worth investigation and discussion.The desideratum in regard to milk is that the poorshould be able to procure it at the same time good andcheap. It is argued, and doubtless with truth, that if allthe precautions needful to insure a pure milk-supplywere enforced the cost of the product would be greatl3

increased. If, for example, as in New York and in someother American cities, certified milk were supplied on

request the various methods through which such milk has togo in order to reach the high standard required would renderit necessary to increase the price. Obviously a milk of thisdescription would be unattainable by the poor even if theywere educated up to the point of appreciating its value. Inthe meantime it would be a decided step in the rightdirection if the proprietors of small provision shops whoretail milk were compelled to observe certain well-definedprecautions, such as keeping all the milk vessels scrupulouslyclean and having the milk in a vessel which should bealways covered and provided with an exit tap so as to

prevent dirt and flies to some extent from contaminating the

milk. ____

THE PARIS ABATTOIR AT LA VILLETTE.(FROM OUR SPECIAL SANITARY COMMISSIONER.)

(Concluded from p. 126.)

THERE are at La Villette 11 pavilions such as have beendescribed and illustrated where sheep and horned cattle areslaughtered. Other pavilions very similar in structure andunited by a central glass-roofed court are used as cattle-penswhere the animals which have been brought from the neigh-bouring cattle market wait till it is their turn to beslaughtered. These pavilions, however, are so utterlyunsuited for the purpose, so deficient in light and ventila-

! tion, that the same thing happens there as occurs in regardto the slaughtering. The cattle, especially during the hotsummer weather, are kept in the glass-roofed yards instead ofin the pavilions on each side of the yards. (dee Fig. 1.) Here

! they have plenty of light and air, but there are no mangers,no water troughs-in fact, no stable appurtenances. Also it ismuch easier for the veterinary surgeons to examine them in

1 the yards than in the neighbouring dark stables. Thus, just1 as the butchers like to work in the open court instead of inf their small private compartments, so also are the cattler kept in the courts between the masonry pavilions rather thano in the pavilions themselves. This is a very practical demonstra-L tion of the unsuitability of the latter. I did, however, pene-L- trate some of these buildings and found them very dark ande repugnant. In one of them there were a number of sheepe separated by wooden partitions well calculated to retain dirtt- and disease germs. Also, and apart from these pavilions, I’e saw some small brick structures used for keeping sheep. Iny these latter there were numerous rafters and only very small:d windows which supplied but little air or light.

Further on there are extensive wooden- stables for sheepvhich, though built 12 years ago, were called provisional.lere the central passage is so narrow that the manure has to)e thrown out of the windows. A cart or even a hand barrowiould not be introduced inside the building. But it is

-specially deplorable that no idea seems to exist as to what)ught to be done. Thus the principle that wood, beingporous, is an unsuitable material to employ has not dawnedipon the workers and butchers of La Villette. On the

contrary, if there is a need of some sort of railing or

partition, an attendant is almost sure to explain how with afew planks or a pole this can be provided. Therefore thesheep and other animals are only separated from each otherby wooden framework which becomes black and greasyand caked with dirt, thus supplying a culture-medium formicrobes. This may help to account for the frequent casesof foot-and-mouth disease which occur at La Villette. The

large wooden stables were built at a time when a greatquantity of German sheep were imported into Paris. Theycost, it appears, no less than .S16.000.

This wooden structure is not of much use to-day, as thereare no longer many sheep imported from Germany. It issituated close to the Ourcq canal and a rising bridge enabledthe sheep to go from the cattle market into the slaughter-house without leaving the railway trucks that had broughtthem from Germany. All this is very badly organised, thereare no proper platforms for the landing of the sheep, and itis no use sending animals, already purchased for killing, tothe cattle market where they come in contact with, and mayinfect, other cattle. Worse, if anything, than the improperstructure of many of the buildings is the fact that the

water-supply at La Villette is insufficient. The watermain is only 30 centimetres in diameter and there are

moments when this does not suffice, so that the taps

255THR PARIS ABATTOIR AT LA VILLETTE.

FIG. 1.

Roofed court uniting two pavilions intended for cattle pens.

FIG. 2.

Scene at the Vaugirard Abattoir; the soot-black walls should be noted.

256

occasionally run dry. To lessen the frequency of sucha contingency a small reservoir has been constructed and isplaced on the top of a turret-like building. It is inside thisbuilding in immediate prcximity to the water that the

repugnant skinning of fcetal lambs and calves takes place.One forgotten foetus was lying rotting outside the door atthe moment of my visit. Inside I found a delicate-looking,fair young girl, perhaps 16 or 17 years old, wearing woodenclogs, dressed almost like a boy, and busy tearing the skinsoff a number of lambs that had been killed in utero by theslaughter of their mothers or that were stillborn. It seemsto me that young women should not be employed on suchwork. This horrible proximity of girlhood with pre-nataldeath and destruction is most revolting. And just abovewas the reservoir of water which also should be kept pure.

It may be old-fashioned and unprogressive on my part, butI must confess that I was shocked at the work which women,and some quite young women, were allowed to do. One of the most repugnant sights, both on the south as well as the north side of the Seine, is the pig-bleeding ronm. At the Vaugirardslaughter-house, as well as at La Villette, women are

employed to kill and to bleed the pigs. These animals arenot thrown into boiling water, so that the bristles may beloosened by the scalding and then scraped off. As soon as

they are killed and have bled sufficiently straw is piled aroundthem and ignited. Thus the bristles are burnt off. This

singeing process is often employed for bacon and not for pork.But it occasions a great deal of smoke and consequentlythe inside of the building where the pigs are killed is as blackas a chimney, being covered throughout with a thick layer ofsoot. (See Fig. 2). This imparts a still more forbiddingappearance to the whole place. The smell of burnt hair andflesh, the women collecting buckets full of blood, their bloodbespattered clothes, their hands soaked and reeking withblood, the ear-piercing shrieks of the pigs, the steam fromthe hot blood, the sini,ter clatter of wooden clogs on thehard cemented floor, the callous if inevitable indifference tothis daily massacre, all goes to make up a picture which isthe very opposite of that which man is wont to associatewith a reverent appreciation of the virtues of woman.In the preparation of tripe, sheep and pigs’ feet, &c.,- a

large number of women are employed. At a Villette thisis organised by private enterprise-that is to say, a syndicateof dealers in these by-products. They merely hire from thetown of Paris and within the precincts of the abattoirbuildings occupying 1200 square metres of land. In thisrestricted space they treat the edible by-products, tripf,calves’ heads, &c., of some 2,000,000 animals per annum.This would not be possible but for the employment of veryingenious labour- and space-saving machinery. Nevertheless,there is much overcrowding which should not be allowed.Also a much stricter sanitary supervision is necessary. In thecentre of a little hut where calves’ and bullocks’ feet were beingprepared for culinary purposes there was an untrapped drainthat gave forth a vile odour. This was a dark coachhouse-like structure in which nothing intended for human foodshould be permitted to enter. In another place I found thatcalves’ heads were thrown on the floor ; the dirt and greaseaiding, they glided along and this was easier than carryingthem from place to place. The skinning and then thepacking of sheep’s feet in bundles, like bundles of wood,were done in part by machinery and in part by the handlabour of women, who sat closely huddled togetherendeavouring to keep pace with the machinery. There wasno systematic ventilation. The places were badly pavecand in many instances the foul water could percolate int(the subsoil. Above any amount of rafters preserved th<dust and dirt of ages, occasionally allowing small particles thereof to fall on the food that accumulates belowHere was another excellent illustration of the fact s(

dramatically demonstrated at Cnicago that, unless con

trolled by law, private enterprise makes no differencebetween what is to be eaten and other articles of industria

production. It is always a question of the economy of timeof space, and of labour-in other words, of the cheapness oproduction, without a single thought as to the safeguardiniof the health of the workers and of the consumers.

FortnnatHly it is now fully recognised that the abattoiat La Villette no longer corresponds with modern requirements. Its days are numbered. Paris cannot afford to remaimuch longer behind Germanv and Switzerland in regard t

the sanitation of its meat-supply. The fact. f. r instancethat men have to carry heavy portions of meat or carcaseon their backs is worthy only of the Middle Ages. At L

Villette there is but one really modern department. Thatis a large hall where the carcasses of the hogs are suspendedand kept till the butchers fetch them away. Here there arethe " omnibus " overhead rails so that the suspendedcarcasses are affixed to small wheels fitting to these rails andcan be easily pushed along. Of course, these overhead railsare more needed for heavy horned cattle than for pigs, andshould start from the slaughtering place A carcass shouldbe lifted up by pulleys and never carried. At La Villette,however, with the exception of the hogs, all are borne on thebacks of the butchers, who, in such a dirty place, cannotpossibly keep themselves clean. In the absence ofmechanical appliances five men are employed to kill abullock where in a slaughter-house with modern fittingsthree would suffice.There should be no insurmountable financial difficulty in

building new and model slaughter-houses for Paris. Theabattoir of L’i. Villette cost &pound;1,200,000, which 8um wasrepaid by yearly instalments, and the debt was liquidatedlong ago-namely, in the year 1887. At a congress ofbutchers held in Paris in 1894, the average cost and profitfor the previous 13 years were given. Though these weresomewhat ancient figures, I was led to infer that there hadbeen no very material change since. If anything the profitmust have increased, for there has been an increase in thenumber of animals staugbtered. The receipts were estimatedas follows : 160,228,384 kilogrammes of meat at 2 per cent.on its sale price. This yielded an average annual income of3.204 567 francs (&pound;128,182). The rent paid by the dealersin tripe and other by products, and for the storage of meat,together with various small receipts, brought the totalincome up to 3,418 514 francs (.6136,740). The workingexpenses were set down at an average of 699 283 francs, or.627,971. so that there remained a net annual profit of2 719.232 francs, or J?108,769. This is a sufficient incometo guarantee a loan for building another and a better abattoir.

BIRMINGHAM.(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

l’ke University.THE spring term, which commenced last week, has started

very favourably and the number of students at work is

greater than in any previous term. By far the majority arestudying applied sciences, but the numbers in the medical,arts, and commerce faculties are very satisfactory. In themedical faculty the work in the spring term is particularlyheavy and no special lectures are to be delivered, but in theother faculties much additional work is to be done. TheSocial Study lectures have already recommenced and are toinclude Cooperation, Local Administration, and Public Healthand Housing, which will be dealt with respectively by Pro-fessor Ahley, Professor Masterman, and Dr. J Robertson.On the 22nd of the month Professor Churton Collins recom-menced his interpretative recitals, taking Shelley as his firstsubject. Daring the course of the term Mr. L. D ’ncaster willdeliver a course of lectures on the Principles of Heredity and

, Variation in Animals and Plants, and on Wednesday evenings. Mr. W. E Collinge will lecture on Animal Pests of the

Garden. There is therefore a very extensive series of lectures

provided, which are open to all students of the University,either free or at a very small fee, and thus an excellent oppor-tunity is afforded for them to step outside their own par-

= ticular department and effectually to broaden their generalout ook In the Faculty of Commerce, which is pushing itsway forward with no uncertain steps under Professor Ashley’sable and energetic control, a new departure has been taken

by the establishment of an advisory board of business men io, cooperate with the professors in the Faculty. The step is a

tentative one and is made with the object of gathering sug-,; gestions with regard to the training of students for business

g purposes from those who have practical experience of

business demand)?, whilst at the same time it h, hoped thatr

the board will be able to bring the Faculty and its graduatesto the notice of the business world.

a The Housing Froblem.o After a long discussion the city council decided to adopt:, the scheme of the housing committee for the di-posat’s of the Bordlc’sley Green site, to which attention was

,a drawn in THE LANCET of Jan. 19th, p. 200. When