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regular Slaughter-Houses are not so many. Whether they
are "whitewashed with quick lime, at least twice in each
year, or have a sufficient number of vessels with tight close
fitting covers," it will be hereafter my duty to learn.
Cleansing of Public Ways and Removal of Domestic Ref use.
With respect to the cleansing of Public Ways, I take leave
to suggest, that it would be an advantage to have the refuse
more frequently carted away, and that the contractors (so
far as relates to the removal of house dust) require both remonstrance
and supervision After the purer supply of water,
"the next most effectual measure of sanatory improvement
will be the purification of the London atmosphere, by the
complete removal from the houses and streets daily of the
residue of the organic matter which is brought into them
daily." (Registrar-General.)
Such is the brief sketch that I have to present. Gentlemen,
while in the Country 202 out of every 1000 live to be "threescore
years and ten,"—105 only arrive at that age in Bethnal
Green.
Hence, how noble the aim to lengthen the term, and to
augment the value of that "great property—Life." But
before we shall accomplish desiderata so grand, our highways
and by-ways must be thoroughly drained, and mile upon
mile of sewerage made. Until then, we are doomed to eke
out existence on unhealthy ground—to inhale a slow poison
at every breath—and perhaps, at last, to die prematurely—
holocausts to preventible, yet unremedied ills! Gentlemen,
when the "ordures that now pollute our river shall fertilize
our fields, and ceasing at length to breed disease and death,
shall spring up, strangely transmuted, in rich crops of the
life-sustaining grain," or, when discharged at high water below
Barking Creek, they pass down the stream, slowly but surely,
one mile per day, to the great ocean beyond:— then, but not