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  • Symbolen van openbare hygiëne: Gemeentelijke slachthuizen in Nederland, 1795–1940
  • Godelieve van Heteren
P. A. Koolmees. Symbolen van openbare hygiëne: Gemeentelijke slachthuizen in Nederland, 1795–1940. Nieuwe Nederlandse Bijdragen tot der Geschiedenis der Geneeskunde en der Natuurwetenschappen, no. 54. Rotterdam: Erasmus Publishing, 1997. 309 pp. Ill. Hfl. 69.50 (paperbound).

In this era of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), swine fevers, and poultry crises, one cannot escape a reversed sense of déja vu when reading the juicy and sometimes scandalous stories surrounding the historical rise of municipal slaughterhouses in the Netherlands. Koolmees takes us through 150 years of tug-of-war between a variety of interest groups in the decentralized Dutch political arena, in an attempt to explain why the Netherlands lagged behind in the development of public slaughterhouses, especially when compared with other, more centralist European countries such as France.

In the course of nine chapters, what at first might seem a narrow, fairly technical subject is elaborated to become a wonderfully complicated tale at the intersection of the history of public health professions and developments, and the history of economics, technology, local and national politics, and animal ethics. In his introductory chapters, Koolmees sketches—in broad socioeconomic and demographic sweep—the shifts in context of both meat production and meat consumption, as well as of public “control” of meat since the late Middle Ages. While distinguishing various major economic fluctuations since the late eighteenth century, Koolmees underscores the growing importance of agriculture, cattle breeding, and the manufacturing of dairy products for Dutch domestic consumption and exports. He usefully separates the impact of export-demands from the cultural factors steering the home-consumption of meat, and he makes it sufficiently clear that—generally speaking—meat did remain a food for the wealthy until well into the twentieth century. The introductory chapters also refer to the various ways in which meat-consumption carried symbolic significance and—especially from the mid-nineteenth century onward—became a critical theme in debates about health, public welfare, and national productivity.

Dutifully, Koolmees places some of the trends he describes in his opening chapters under the heading of a post-Enlightenment public “civilizing mission” (beschavingsoffensief), a term coined by the sociologist Norbert Elias. 1 Ironically, this broad sociological caption quickly appears too meager to do justice to the historical explanations that the author offers the reader in the central chapters of his book. In discussing the various actors and motives that interact and conflict in suggesting, sabotaging, and finally building public slaughterhouses, Koolmees manages to present matters in rich detail without creating a mess.

A noticeable feature of the Dutch case is the phenomenon that Koolmees makes visible in a table on p. 153: in the Netherlands, only eleven public slaughterhouses were extant by 1903. And yet a clear conception of public slaughterhouses had been available since the Enlightenment and French occupation; [End Page 771] legal frameworks to induce Dutch local and national authorities to take further steps had been established in the course of the nineteenth century; and communities of Dutch hygienists, veterinarians, and other professionals had organized themselves in favor of the production of sound meat and of better control over meat production, domestic supply, and export.

Koolmees demonstrates how, time and again, the factors that worked against the “rationale” of establishing public slaughterhouses were predominantly economic. While increasingly the nuisance caused in towns by the many small, decentralized butcheries was publicly criticized, few town officials wanted to hamper free trade or antagonize the organizations of butchers by introducing too-stringent meat inspection. For most of the nineteenth century, the economic interests related to meat production clearly outweighed the concern for municipal health and environment. In addition, most local authorities feared the huge expenses involved in erecting public slaughterhouses, while dreading a fall in revenue on meat. Frauds and epidemics were the outcome.

It required a change in political climate, away from radical laissez-faire, and a growth in municipal wealth to shift the balance. This happened during the 1880s. In fine detail, Koolmees discusses the legal, technical, and professional elements that played a role in finally establishing public slaughterhouses. Throughout the book, he keeps a clear, comparative eye...

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