THE DEAD-MEAT MARKETS. 351 



great markets, however, the slaughter-houses are in cellars under 

 ground, and are not managed with equal neatness. It requires 

 some courage to enter these places. In the extensive market at 

 White Chapel, the slaughtering establishments are above ground 

 in the rear of the stalls, and the gutters of the streets literally 

 flow with blood. 



2. CUSTOMS OF THE JEWS. The market at White Chapel is 

 in the immediate neighborhood of the quarter of the city where 

 most of the Jews reside. The Jews will never eat or buy any 

 meat, which is not killed by some one of their community 

 deputed or appointed for that express purpose. He comes at 

 the time fixed and kills the animal and after the meat is dressed, 

 if he finds upon it the slightest blemish or indication of disease, 

 the meat is condemned, and no Jew will buy it, though the 

 Christians betray no scruples of this sort.* If the meat is found 

 perfectly sound and healthy, a clasp or token is put upon the 

 leg, and the Jews are at liberty to purchase it. 



Any person who has the curiosity to go into the Jews quarter, 

 and see how they live, behold the filth of their streets, the 

 wretchedness of their habitations, remark a squalidness which 

 no description can exaggerate, and inhale the odors of which 

 the place is redolent, which seem to be the very compound of 



* The subjoined note is of a nature scarcely to be read -by any person of a 

 very sensitive and delicate mind. I advise such persons, therefore, by all means 

 to pass it over. I give it in self-defence, and to show that I do not intend to 

 make statements without authority. 



In my Third Report, page 261, 1 said that &quot; numbers of cattle are almost every 

 week, as I have reason to believe, brought to Smithfield in such a state of disease 

 as to be fit for no other purpose and for this they are actually bought but to 

 make sausages for the poor Londoners.&quot; This statement a kind and intelligent 

 friend complained of as unwarrantable, and not well founded. The form of ex 

 pression might, I admit, have been better chosen ; but the reason I had to believe 

 the fact, was the direct assertion of some respectable salesmen in Smithfield 

 Market, who spoke of the practice as undoubted. This was particularly appli 

 cable to the time when an epidemic prevailed among the cattle. 1 do not believe 

 any city officer would permit or connive at it, if known ; but cases of a strongly 

 suspicious character are yet established with so much difficulty by what would be 

 deemed legal evidence, that parties notoriously criminal often escape with im 

 punity. 



But the following statement, given under oath to Dr. Playfair and Sir Henry 

 de la Beche, of the Health of Towns Commission, during their inquiry into the 



