ABATTOIRS, OR SLAUGHTERING HOUSES. 409 



midst of its thickest population, to and from which cattle are 

 driven at all times of day and night, to the great terror, and often 

 at the peril of life and limb, of the passengers. Slaughter houses 

 are to be found in all parts of the city, even the most fashionable, 

 into which cattle are driven directly through the front doors and 

 passages of handsome residences : the Newgate market is com 

 pletely underlaid with subterranean slaughter houses of an odious 

 description ; the blood, and much of the animal refuse, so valua 

 ble in an agricultural point of view, passes into the common 

 sewer, either to check the current and produce disease, or it goes 

 on with other filth to poison the waters of the Thames : and in 

 one of the largest and most populous streets in London, for some 

 distance the sidewalk is lined with slaughter houses, where the 

 killing of the animals is open to every passer-by, and where the 

 very gutters, as I have often seen them, are red with blood. 

 The London markets have very imperfect protection against the 

 sale of diseased meats : and diseased animals in Smithfield meet 

 with a quick disposal at a lower price to persons who in various 

 forms disguise the meat, and impose it upon the humbler classes. 

 Indeed, in all that concerns the cleanness, the preparation, and 

 the economy of human food, and the preeminent neatness of 

 those who sell, as much as of the articles which they sell, the 

 French I speak particularly of the Parisians are, within my 

 knowledge, excepting only the markets of Philadelphia, without 

 a rival. They are, indeed, scarcely approached. No part of the 

 animal is lost ; every part which is capable of being converted 

 into human food, is prepared for use ; and even the cold meats, 

 the fragments and remnants of the table, which are sold in the 

 markets to the poor, are always presented in a clean and inoffen 

 sive manner.* 



Besides these establishments for the slaughtering of cattle and 



* The Londoners, it seems, are just waking up to the utility and importance 

 of establishing abattoirs in the neighborhood of the city; though, strange to say, 

 they have suffered an admirable establishment of this kind at Islington, conve 

 niently situated and excellently arranged, to lie useless and to go to decay. 



Since the above was written, a project for the removal of the Smithfield mar 

 ket has been defeated, and a public dinner been held to celebrate the triumph 

 of the successful party. It ought to have been given in one of the subterranean 

 slaughter houses of Newgate market. 

 VOL. ii. 35 



