Report of the Sanitary Committee of the Commissioners of Sewers of the City of London, together with a report of the Medical Officer of Health on the objections raised by the Butchers' Trade Society to the bye-laws proposed for the regulation of slaughter-houses

by W. Sedgwick Saunders; City of London . Commissioners of Sewers. Sanitary Committee

Bye-law XXI.

That every person occupying a Slaughter-house shall cause the works needful for complying with these Bye-laws to be forthwith executed, and when completed shall not permit any alteration to be made in them without the sanction of the Commissioners of Sewers of the City of London, and that the whole of the works and regulations be carried out to the approval of the Medical Officer of Health.

Objection.

That the Medical Officer of Health should not be the judge of the mode in which the works ordered by the Bye-laws are executed.

Reply.

This Bye-law provides a salutary check upon the active resistance the Butchers seem ever ready to offer to rules intended for their own benefit, no less than the protection of the public health, and the general arrangements and discipline of a Slaughter-house belonging exclusively to the Sanitary Department, your Committee thought it would save circumlocution if the Medical Officer of Health was made amenable to the Court of Sewers for the due maintenance of the Bye-laws in their integrity.

So far, however, as I am concerned I shall be very thankful to be relieved from the odious duty of enforcing regulations which are so ungraciously acquiesced in by the persons on whose behoof they are made, at the same time I shall never shrink from accepting whatever responsibility may be connected with my office.

It is quite untrue, as stated by the Butchers’ Trade Society, “that the Bye-laws in question have been framed by persons totally without practical acquaintance with the trade,” the fact being, that they were prepared with the active assistance of several Members of the Committee of great experience as providitors, two of whom are large carcass butchers, and two others are extensively connected, commercially and officially, with the butchering interests, and well informed upon the economy of Markets and Slaughter-houses. Again, the Committee was attended at each of its sittings by the Deputy of the Ward in which the Slaughter-houses are situated, who was specially invited to attend upon each occasion, and who generously and frankly avowed himself the advocate of the slaughterers. This gentleman took part in all the discussions, and argued forcibly and fully every point in connexion with the subject; but beyond this, your Committee’s Report was further analysed and criticised by the General Court of Sewers, amongst whom were many Commissioners practically and intimately acquainted with the whole bearings and requirement of the question. As you are aware, the Court adopted your Report, without amendment or alteration, being satisfied of the wisdom and expediency of the Bye-laws compiled by you.

The remarks of the “Butchers’ Trade Society” relative to the Report being passed by the Court of Sewers with “closed doors” require one word of explanation: The exclusion of strangers at the time the Report was presented was not dictated by any desire to conceal the purport of its contents, and indeed had nothing to do with the main question of its adoption, but was resolved simply in order that the Solicitor might read a confidential communication having reference only to a technical legal proposition as to the mode of enforcing the said Bye-laws should they be sanctioned by the Local Government Board.

In conclusion, I will only add that, having given my best attention to the whole subject, and carefully considered the not very formidable “objections” raised by the butchers, I have arrived at the honest conviction that no substantial grounds are therein advanced which would justify you, as the Sanitary Authority in the City of London, in varying the requirements of the Bye-laws submitted for approval to the Local Government Board, beyond the concessions herein described.

Adverting to my individual action in the matter, I may here repeat that I am quite unconscious of the smallest desire to limit the usefulness or cripple the operations of an important and valuable trade, and that I have endeavoured to reconcile the desires of the occupiers of the Slaughter-houses with the imperative requirements of the public health; nevertheless, I cannot help sharing the conviction of all competent Sanitarians, that the perpetuation of densely packed Slaughter-houses in the midst of a close population, where the introduction of a sufficient supply of light, air, and ventilation, is physically impossible, was a lamentable error of legislation, which every unprejudiced observer admits will, and must, be remedied, whenever the exigencies of public health are allowed to outweigh the antagonism of interested and uncompromising opposition.

I feel it necessary to say as much as this, since I have been credited with more than my share in the preparation of the materials upon which you have deemed it wise and expedient to frame these Bye-laws, an impression which has involved me in no small amount of abuse and obloquy.

I have the honour to be,
Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
WM. SEDGWICK SAUNDERS, M.D.,
Medical Officer of Health.

Guildhall,
27th June, 1876.