Water should be plentifully laid on at a good pressure, so as to ensure thorough flushing, &c., and the necessary taps should be recessed in the walls, as everything in a building of this description should be kept as flush as possible, or it will be damaged. In some slaughter-houses hot water is laid on, and this is a great boon to the butchers and much appreciated by them. Gas must of course be laid on, as much slaughtering takes place during the night. The machinery for hoisting the beasts and slinging the carcasses requires to be effective, simple, and very strong, as it is subjected to the roughest treatment, and such machinery has been patented and is erected by Messrs. John Meiklejon and Son, of Dalkeith, on very reasonable terms.[227] This machinery hoists the beast by simply pulling on an endless chain. It remains suspended at any height, and can be equally easily lowered. The divided carcass can be placed upon hooks at any point along the girders above without being touched, and it can be taken off again and lowered on to a man’s shoulders or into the cart direct, and in fact, speaking from my own experience, this machinery is very perfect. The carcasses of the sheep are hung by hand upon hooks projecting from rails which are placed at a convenient height around the walls of the slaughter-house. In some abattoirs the sheep slaughter-houses are distinct from those used for killing beasts, and this method has many advantages. Before proceeding to describe the further requirements of an abattoir or group of slaughter-houses, I think the following plan will be of use to show the arrangement which I have described with regard to lairs and slaughter-houses:-- [Illustration: PLAN SECTION THROUGH A.B.] The following plan shows the arrangements adopted in the Metropolitan Cattle Market slaughter-houses: [Illustration: METROPOLITAN CATTLE MARKET SLAUGHTER-HOUSES.] (3.) _The condemned meat department._ This should consist of a lair for suspected cattle, a lair and slaughter-house for the condemned cattle similar to that already described, and a condemned meat store: this being the place where not only all the diseased animals’ carcasses are temporarily stored pending destruction, but also any meat of sound beasts that may have gone bad after killing, &c. The whole of the meat thus placed in the condemned store must be taken to the boiling-down house, where it is destroyed by being boiled down to fat, which is disposed of for various trade purposes. The following description of the method employed for this purpose at the Deptford Foreign Cattle Market will here be of use:[228]