SLAUGHTER HOUSES. The first attempt to regulate the conduct of establishments where, animals are slaughtered for food probably was made during the reign of Richard 11., for in 1388 an act of Parliament forbade the casting of offal and other refuse of slaughtered animals into rivers and other waters. During the nineteenth century a national system of munici pal slaughter houses was established in France and Germany and an agitation for a similar sys tem of public ownership was under way in Great Britain and had been established in many towns. This great public improvement originated with Napoleon, who passed a decree in 1807 for the erection of public abattoirs.
In Germany each town council has authority to erect and maintain public slaughter houses and to forbid the slaughtering of meat elsewhere. It may enact that fresh meat brought from outside this area for the use of restaurants and hotels shall not be prepared for food until it has been inspected. The importation of prepared meats may be, at the discretion of the town council, entirely prohibited. The council may also order that meat not slaughtered at the public slaughter houses shall be exposed fOr sale in a separate place by meat dealers.
In many of the German cities, not only slaugh ter houses, but also markets for the sale of meat, usually located in the suburbs, arc maintained at public expense.
England is far behind Germany in the regula tion of the slaughter and sale of meat. Inspec tion has not been made compulsory by Parlia mentary enactment, nor has the maintenance of municipal slaughter houses been authorized. Sev eral towns, however, have secured such authority by special legislation. Abattoirs were opened in
Edinburgh in 1851, and in Manchester in 1872. Birmingham has a city market, which includes most of the appliances of the best German mar kets, hut is located in the centre of the city. Its cost, including an expensive site, was $600,000. Throughout Europe the construction of municipal abattoirs has been general, and they are now considered necessary in order that not only the slaughtering of animals. but also the inspection of meat, may be concentrated and regulated. In Berlin two municipal slaughtering establish ments, erected at a cost of nearly $5.000,000, were opened in 1883 and took the place of nearly 1000 slaughter houses privately owned.
In the 'United States, though there are no municipal abattoirs, the consolidation of a very large proportion of the business of slaughtering, dressing, packing, and shipping meat in a few immense establishments has greatly lessened the number of private slaughter houses and cor respondingly lessened the need for municipal slaughter houses. The market value which has arisen for what were formerly considered waste products has simplified the problem of dispos ing of the offal. (See PACKING INDUSTRY.) Such regulations as exist are due largely to municipal rather than State or national control, and therefore vary with the localities. Consult : Parke, on Municipal Authorities and Slaughter Houses, read before the Sanitary Institute at Birmingham, England, in ISOS; also .Maltbie, Mu/lie/poi% Functions (New York, 1898), and Shaw, Alunicipal Government in Continental Eu rope (ib., 1895).