Description of the abattoirs of Paris / by Richard Boxall Grantham ; with an abstract of the discussion upon the paper.

  • Richard Boxall Grantham
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Description of the abattoirs of Paris / by Richard Boxall Grantham ; with an abstract of the discussion upon the paper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Professor Owen had great pleasure in offering his testimony to the accuracy of Mr. Grantham’s account, as on more than one occasion he hail carefully examined the question, particularly in the autumn of 1847, when as a member of the Metropolitan Sanitary Commission he inspected the abattoirs, and their dependencies in Paris, with great minuteness, receiving every possible facility from the authorities, and being much assisted in his inquiries by the admirable documents published annually by the Prefet de Police and the Syndicat des Bouchers. The great feature which called for admiration in the abattoirs of Paris was their bearing, in an economical point of view, on all the numerous classes who were affected by the supply of animal food ; the graziers were benefited by extensive markets being provided for them, where their cattle were easily examined, and where the trade was enabled to go on directly between the grazier and the actual purchaser, without the system of middle men, or meat salesmen, whose assistance became indispensable in London, on account of the difficulties of Smithfield. This was one of the direct taxes on meat, which the consumer had to pay. A more important benefit was the arrangement of the markets, which rendered it almost impossible that any diseased meat could enter Paris. By the excellent existing supervision, every tainted, or diseased animal was at once rejected, and its introduction entailed due punishment. Then, after the grazier, the master butcher de- rived a benefit, by receiving the cattle in the best possible condition for killing, as they were not over-driven, the abattoirs being so placed and the system of conveying the fattened beasts to them being so arranged, that they came there in a totally different state from that in which they arrived at Smithfield. The contrast was extremely striking, and as a physiologist he conceived it to be of the greatest importance to the wholesomeness of the food. In London the majority of the beasts were slaughtered in a state of fever, and when the blood was in an unnatural state. The micro- scope clearly demonstrated the shocking state of the animals, and it was a fact that he had never met with tlie blood of a calf, ox, or sheep in a slaughter-house in his own neighbourhood (Clare Market) which he could pronounce to be in a thoroughly healthy state, and it followed of necessity that the quality of the meat was deteriorated. There were a few first-rate wealthy butchers in London, who avoided this evil, by having their own fields, or turning their sheep into the Parks for a few days; but in Paris it was entirely obviated, by placing the abattoirs at the extremities of the city, altliough within the walls, on account of the municipal duties. It would be
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