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9
January last, they were 104. It is needless again to
describe this place. Having referred the question as to
its safety in a structural point of view to the District
Surveyor, it was ordered to be closed by the Commissioners
of Police, which order was carried out in the
beginning of March. By this measure and the demolition
of Parsons-square, the parish is relieved of two of
the foulest dens, which had long served as centres for
the harbouring and propagation of the most destructive
physical and moral diseases.
Slaughter-houses and Cow-houses—Owing partly to
the system of licensing the slaughter-houses and placing
them under sanitary supervision, and partly, it ought to
be said, to the intelligence of the butchers themselves,
these establishments will, it is hoped, no longer operate
as nuisances, or injuriously upon the health of the
dwellers in their vicinity. I think it is much to be
regretted that a similar controul is not given to the Vestry
and Magistrates in the case of Cow-houses. If it were
felt desirable to institute this controul over establishments
for the slaughter of cattle and sheep, where it is
the interest of the owner to observe the most scrupulous
cleanliness, and where ventilation is comparatively less
important, it is tenfold more necessary that an effective
controul should exist over cow-yards, where a number
of living animals requiring considerable space, free
supply of air, adequate structural accommodation, and
storeage for food, are huddled together. The statistics of
our London cows, if they could be collected, would
demonstrate in a manner even more striking than do