166 BAILLY. 



slaughter-houses still existed in the interior of the capital 

 in 1788 ; for instance, at I'Apport-Paris, La Croix-Rouge, 

 in the streets of the Butcheries, Mont-Martre, Saint-Mar- 

 tin, Traversine, &c. &c. The oxen were, consequently, 

 driven in droves through frequented parts of the town ; 

 enraged by the noise of the carriages, by the excitements 

 of the children, by the attacks or barking of the wander- 

 ing dogs, they often sought to escape, entered houses or 

 alleys, spread alarm everywhere, gored people, and com- 

 mitted great damage. Fetid gases exhaled from build- 

 ings too small and badly ventilated ; the offal that had to 

 be carried away gave out an insupportable smell ; the 

 blood flowed through the gutters of the neighbourhood, 

 with other remains of the animals, and putrefied there. 

 The melting of tallow, an inevitable annexation of all 

 slaughter-houses, spread around disgusting emanations, 

 and occasioned a constant danger of fire. 



So inconvenient, so repulsive a state of things, awak- 

 ened the solicitude of individuals and of the public admin- 

 istration ; the problem was submitted to our predecessors, 

 and Bailly, as usual, became the reporter of the Academ- 

 ical Committee. The other members were Messrs. Tillet, 

 Darcet, Daubenton, Coulomb, Lavoisier, and Laplace. 



When Napoleon, wishing to liberate Paris from the 

 dangerous and insalubrious results of internal slaughter- 

 houses, decreed the construction of the fine slaughter- 

 houses known by everybody, he found the subject already 

 well examined, exhibited in all its points of view, in 

 Bailly's excellent work. " We ask," said the reporter of 

 the Academical Commission in 1788, "we ask that the 

 shambles be removed to a distance from the interior of 

 Paris ; " and these interior shambles have disappeared 

 accordingly. Does it create surprise that it required more 



