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32
OFFENSIVE AND INJURIOUS TRADES.
the City; and that, with the abolition of slaughtering,
all establishments which deal with animal
matter approaching putrefaction, and all sheds and
stalls, for the continued keeping of cattle, should
likewise be prohibited and suppressed.
The number of slaughter-houses at present
registered and tolerated within the City amounts
to 138, and in 58 of these the slaughtering occurs
in vaults and cellars. How overwhelming an
amount of organic decomposition must be furnished
by these out of the blood and offal merely of those
'450,000 sheep and 60,000 cattle which annually
pass over Blackfriars-bridge alone,' can neither be
estimated nor conceived ; but the influence of that
decomposition admits of being measured in its
effects on the population, and in the high zymotic
mortality which denotes an atmosphere overladen
with organic poieon.
Before leaving this subject, I think it right
very briefly to allude to an argument which is
often objected to the view here stated. The
objector looks to a particular district, or to a particular
slaughter-house, and says that the mortality
of the district is an average one ; or he points to
Mr. A. or Mr. B. the butcher, or the butcher's
man, saying, ' Who can be healthier than A. or B ?
Surely, if the pursuit be injurious, these men ought
to have been poisoned long ago.' Now, to this I
reply;—first, as regards the men employed in these