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14
Thus in these 13 streets there has prevailed during the
last nine months a mortality more than 44 per cent. greater
than that of the Parish in general: and out every hundred
deaths which have occurred, the frightful proportion of 60
have happened to children under five years old ; so that in the
neighbourhood of Paddington Canal it would appear that the
duration of human existence is reduced to less than half its
natural limits—a fact which I cannot better illustrate than by
supposing a child were this day born in Brindley Street with a
claim to succeed to property of £ 1000 on its arriving at its
fifth birthday, the present value of that claim would not
exceed £274, or 43 per cent. of what its value would be,
under the average circumstances of salubrity, contemplated by
the English Life Table.
COW SHEDS.
*The Inspector of Nuisances has examined during the last
month all the cow sheds in the Parish. He has ascertained
that 314 cows are at present kept in Paddington. These are
distributed among 27 cow-keepers. Many of the sheds are
in close proximity to inhabited dwellings. In a large proportion,
the drainage and ventilation are deficient, and fatal
disease has prevailed to a frightful extent among the animals
kept. No less than 19 per cent. of the whole number of cows
have died in the last three months. In one case all the cows
have died.
The keeping of cows in towns is open to serious objection
on three grounds. In the first place because it leads to the
slaughtering of diseased cows, and the consequent introduction
of diseased meat into the market. No sooner does a cow
become attacked with the invariably fatal pulmonary affection
which is at present so prevalent in the Metropolitan cow sheds,
than it becomes the object of the keeper without delay to
dispose of it, before the disease has made sufficient progress
to render the animal unmarketable. It is then conveyed to one
of the slaughter houses, of which there are several in various
parts of London devoted to the carrying on of this