THE DAIRIES OP LONDON. 
377 
vestiture of the ribs. Fatty liver, enlarged spleen, and strange 
abscesses may exist, and needles, knives, &c., are found 
very frequently in the abdomens of creatures that, when 
alive, appeared sleek and perfectly easy in their minds. The 
slaughter-house, in -short, brings to light facts which never 
were suspected during life, and very much property would 
be flung to the dogs, if every ox that did not after death 
exhibit internal parts consonant with perfect health were to 
be condemned as unfit for human food. 
The market may require overlooking ; but are all other 
places to be neglected ( It is evidently wiser to stop the 
source, than to interfere only with the supply. The source, 
however, none appear to have meditated annihilating. It is 
held sacred, as it were, and its produce is allowed a chance 
of escape to the tables of respectability. 
Now the source of half the diseased beef, which finds a 
ready market in London, is the milk-shed. I, some few 
years ago, visited several of these places, and I can bear evi- 
dence to their abominations. I remember only one that was 
even decently clean. The great majority were filthy in the 
extreme, low-pitched, undrained, and not ventilated. They 
were such places as, under no sanitary law, should be for 
a moment permitted to exist in a crowded city. 
The animals are in these sheds huddled together, breath- 
ing the steam given off from one another’s bodies, sleeping 
upon their excrement, and befouling each other as they stand. 
They are so closely packed, that all cannot simultaneously 
lie down, and the beds beneath them are generally rotten 
with excretions. 
These places are of course the centres of disease. The 
tales told about the losses of some milkmen almost seem 
preposterous. Great as the profits of the trade doubtlessly 
are, yet these gains can hardly stand against the fatality of 
the cow-shed. Few milkmen, therefore, become rich, not- 
withstanding their notorious adulterations. The privilege to 
sell water at fourpence a quart, appears to be a paying- 
business ; still, though most of them deal largely in the 
liquid named, I have never heard a single instance of a cow- 
keeper making his fortune. 
This circumstance speaks volumes for the average mor- 
tality among the beasts. It also testifies, that the men alluded 
to are not in circumstances to withstand temptation. Cows, 
for the most part, only leave the London sheds to make beef 
for the London markets. This is the natural course of events. 
A cow is expected to give milk, till want of exercise, hot air, 
and stimulating food have rendered her fat enough to pay 
