Note 223 — Chapter XXVIII · PUBLIC ABATTOIRS.
Reading edition
The word “abattoir” is a French word from “abattre” to fell, it is used in this country to designate a group of slaughter-houses.
[224] The clauses referred to are contained in 10 & 11 Vic. c. 34, and are ss. 125, 126, et seq.; they refer to the registration, licensing and management of private slaughter-houses, and need not be commented upon here.
[225] An ordinary beast is said to lose 3 cwt. in weight in a journey from Edinburgh to London.
[226] The pole-axe should be of the American pattern, which has a head hollow and very sharp round the periphery. The practise is, after the blow is struck and the animal felled, to plunge a thin cane into the wound, which passes down the spine, causing instantaneous death whilst the animal is lying stunned.
[227] The following is from the patent specification of this machinery:
“Letters patent to John Meiklejon, of Westfield Iron Works, Dalkeith, in the County of Mid-Lothian, Scotland, for the invention of new or improved machinery and appliances to be used in hoisting, removing, dividing, and hanging on hooks, taking off these hooks again, and loading carcasses and other bodies in abattoirs, carcass and meat markets, and other places.”
“The machinery and appliances above referred to enable the operations above named to be performed without the necessity of the butchers touching the meat. Also enables carcasses to be conveyed from abattoirs to carcass market on a travelling hoist (hereafter described), same being provided with rows of fixed jointed hooks or loops, attached to rails on which the hoist runs, so that the travelling hoist is enabled to hang the carcasses or bodies on to such hooks or loops. Also enables a butcher to hang a carcass on any of these hooks or loops, and pick them off again, and load on a vehicle, without moving or touching any of the other carcasses hanging on the other hooks. Also enables all operations to be performed, from hoisting when killed to loading when sold or removed from market.”
[228] Vide ‘Report on the New Cattle Market and Abattoirs proposed to be erected at Carolina Port, Dundee,’ by William Mackison, F.R.I.B. A., &c.