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the nearest laystall, increasing its bulk and offensiveness. 5th. The ordure which is
dropped from the animals on their way to the slaughter houses, tends to render the air
impure. The slaughtering of cattle has, moreover, a brutalizing influence upon all
persons, and especially the young, who witness the operation. Great inconvenience,
nearly constant annoyance, and frequent danger are experienced, by the inhabitants living
in the vicinity of these places, from the driving and goading the animals over the footways
of the main thoroughfares, and through the narrow and confined localities in which
many of these premises are situated. And lastly, cattle, when driven through the
streets of London into the several slaughter-houses, where they are frequently crowded
together in a small space, become unhealthy, and the quality of the meat is
deteriorated. For these, and other reasons, I am decidedly of opinion that, the
slaughtering of cattle should be carried on in properly constructed places, at a reasonable
distance from the crowded districts of London, and to which the public should not have
access. I do not apprehend that the inhabitants of London will suffer any inconvenience
from such a regulation, more especially when it appears that a very large quantity of
dead meat is sent up from various parts of the United Kingdom for the supply of the
London Markets. The recent City regulations regarding slaughter-houses are more
stringent than those adopted by your Board; there can be no good reason therefore,
why the same regulations, if just in themselves, and beneficial to the public, should not
be enforced within this—the contiguous district.*
* The regulations in the City of London as regards slaughter-houses, are as follows:—
"1. That each slaughter-house be paved with asphalte or with flag-stone set in cement,
and be laid with proper slope and channels towards a gully.
"2. That each slaughter-house be effectually drained by an adequate drain, communicating
directly with the public sewer: that the gully at the inlet communicating with the drain be
well trapped with a stone-ware syphon trap, or other trap of approved form and construction, and
be covered with a fixed grating, the liars not to be more than three-eighths of an inch apart.
"3. That each slaughter-house be provided with adequate cisternage and water supply,
and be thoroughly washed and cleansed directly after the slaughtering is completed.
"4. That each slaughter-house be adequately ventilated by louvre boards or otherwise,
so as not to be offensive to the neighbours.
"5. That no cesspool for blood or other purpose be permitted to remain, or be constructed
within any slaughter-house.
"6. That the internal surface of each slaughter-house to the height of ten feet,
including any pound, be lime-whited at Lady-day and Michaelmas-day, or within one week
after each, and ðfierier if required ; and the whole of the interior, at or about Midsummer-day.
"7. That the blood, fat, skins, filth, and offal of all animals slaughtered between six
o'clock in the evening and five o'clock in the morning of each day, be removed from every
slaughter-house within this city, before six o'clock in the morning; and of all animals
slaughtered between five o'clock in the morning and six o'clock in the evening of each day, be
removed between the hours of six o'clock in the evening and midnight.
"8. That each slaughter-house be provided with adequate accommodation or poundage
for the cattle apart from the place where the meat is stored, and that the animals be not kept
therein for more than twelve hours before they are killed, and that calves be not kept in any
pound or slaughter-house between the hours of six o'clock in the evening and six o'clock in the
morning.
"9 That the way of access for bullocks to the pound or slaughter-house be not through
an inhabited house.
"10. That a copy of these rules and regulations be affixed and retained in a conspicious
place in every licensed slaughter-house, and from time to time renewed, so as to be always in a
legible and perfect condition."
It is also recommended that in the case of the several licensed slaughter-houses which
had not been used for two years or more, the license should be withdrawn.