The Express.
London, England, 1849-11-08 00:00:00

N,
EVENIG', NOVEMBER 8, 1849.

&must coNDmox or TSB CITY.
JIB. SIMON'S REPOS?.
•
Kr. SIMINS says fa reference to. beness :
I eabsibb slaughtering within thistalaZ es both
dkut~► env ladinesilidoomptsumEltikswiwastdlitelli""yairialrithiha4l4
thsgkmgi
Mae se dreier phAtkeemessys way IM welded,
ildleisdp, • bowie new very efemine and
alesietm Mamas, la close upsides= ca the slareghterieg
of egallee eatitand shoat the edgiest subbase et the
00101•141110, within es *arrow !halts of diatom seek.
eametnnees anew, you invariably tad estabkiebod the new
swaltaat and still mere grievous nuissaces of gut-spinning.
nipudreseleg,besse-boiling, tallow-selang, paunch melange
am Illustrative' of this fact easy be [came la the
gatessrapingy I
shed of Harrow-alley, adjoining Hatettemiermee
Aldine ; or in the Leadenhall slam market, eigillgiseue
the slaeghtering-places, where the stinking hides West& lie
for many hours together, spread oat over a begs area of
ground, waiting for sale, to the great offence oldie neigh-
, boerhood.
finch evils as those to which I bay adverted are inse-
parable from the proems of slaughtering, however fatefully
and cleanlilmeueted • and they may easily be aggravated
to an unlimited extent iulefects in (manage, in water nip-
ply, or in ventilation, oe the slovenly habits and impulse-
tuality of those to whom the removal of filth and offal is
intrusted.
In short, I believe it to be quite impossible so to conduct
the process of slaughtering within the City of London as to I
remove it from the category of nuisances, or to render it
harmless to the health of the population.
The =shoe of slaughter-houses at present registered and
tolerated within the City amounts to 128, and in 68 of these
the slaughtering occurs in vaults and alters. How over-
whelming an amount of organic decomposition must be fur-
nished by these out of the blood and offal merely of those
"450,000 sheep and 60,000 cattle which annually pass over
Blackfrianobridge alone, 'can neither be estimated nor con-
ceived ; but the influence of that decomposition admits of
being measured in its effects on the population, and in the
high, synods mortality which denotes an atmosphere over-
laden with organic poison.
IV. The subject of intramural burial is the next on which
I have to report, as affecting the health of the City. In
compliance with an order of the health committee I have
examined, as fully as circumstances would allow, into the
requirements of the City of London in respect of burial
accommodation, and the result of my inquiry obliges me sepia
to express say conviction that the City can no longer with
safety or propriety be allured to furnish intramural Lange
meat to ha dead.
In all those larger parochial burying-grounds where the
maintenance of a right to bury an be considered important
—in ell such and in most others, too, the soil is saturated
and super-saturated with animal matter undergoing slow
decomposition. There are, indeed, few of the older burial-
grounds of the City where the soil does not rise many feet
above its original level, testifying to the large amount of
animal matter which rote beneath the surface. The vaults
beneath churches are, in many instances, similarly overloaded
with materials of putrefacties, and the atmosphere whisk
should be kept pure, and without admixture for the helm
is hourly tainted with the fetid emanations of the dead
For the most part, home* are seen to rise on all sides in is-
mediate contiguity to the burial ground, forbidding the pee-
ability of even such ventilation as might diminish the evil,
' and the inhabitants of such houses complain bitterly, es
they well may, of the inconvenience which they suffer inns
this confined and noxious atmosphere. With respect to bu-
rial in vaults, which prevails to a very great and danger-
ous extent lathe city, I may observe that among porous
who are ill-informed on the subject there exist erroneous no-
tions as to the preservation of Indies under thew einem
stances. They are supposed, from their complete clones.
se remain unchanged for eges, like the embalmed bodies of
Egypt end Peru ; or, at lean, if perhaps they undergo some
interior and invisible change (aa the Umatilla within its
sheath), that there is no interference with the general ar-
reagement, no breach in the compaetnese of the envelope.
Notting can be less correct than this supposition.
It is umesemeary that I should detail the process of decay
mit occurs within the chaiael house, nor need I inquire
kg your information whether indeed it be true, as alleged,
that part of the duty of a sexton consists in tapping the re
cent coffins, so as to facilitate the escape of gases which other-
wine would burst from their confinement. It is sufficient
that I should state that whether such be or be not the duty
of the functionary in question, a time certainly comet,
sooner or later, when every corpse buried in the vault of a
aura spreads the products of its decomposition through
the air as freely as though no shell had enclosed it. It is
watt* orate utmost notoriety that under all ordinary wadi-
thins of vault sepulture the wooden case of the coffin speedily
decays and crumble*, while the interior leaden one, bending
with the pressure of whatever mess may be above it, yields,
binges, and bursts, as surely as would a hatbox under the
weight of a leaden portmanteau.
It the accuracy of this description lee doubted, let inquiry
be made on a lugs smile after the coffins of 40 years beck
—let it be seen how many will appear! If, on the con-
trary, its accuracy be granted, th'n I apprehend nothing
further need be urged to establish the importance of abolish-
ing a system which maintains in so large a scale the open
putrefaction of human remains within place, of frequent
resort, and in the midst of populous habitations.
It is a very serious matter for consideration, that close
beneath the feet of those who attend the services of their
church there often lien an almost solid pile of cl-oompos
ing human remains, co-extensive with the area of the
building, heaped as high as the vaulting will permit, end
generally Om I have shown) hut very partially confined.
And if it be the cm (as perhaps It may be) that the fre-
quenters of the place of worship do not complain of any
vitiation of the atmosphere, or perhaps do not experience
it, not the less is it true that that vitiation occurs, and
(whether to the special detriment of the congregation or
not) contributes to the overladen putrefactivenessef our Lon-
don atmoept.ere.
In respect of such vaults I do not consider that the mere
natation of interments will be sufficient, seeing that at the
present moment they contract 'mega them many thousand
eeffies as yet tenanted by the materials of decomposition ;
and yen after year, if left in their present state, these will be
poisoning the air with successive instalments of their pro-
gressive decay.
It seems to me quite indispensable that some comprehen-
sive measure should be undertakes for abolishing at once
sad for ever all burial within the City of London. Conjointly
with the general application to parliament for prohibition et
further intramural sepulture, I would recommend that
authority be obtained by the City for its several pariah's to
recur* the decent removal to extramural cemeteries of
seek coffins as already occupy their vaults ; or, failing this
measure, I would recommend that all coffins now lying
within vaults be walled up is their present resting-places,
with uniform impermeable masonry.
I have to report that there are houses and localities
ethin the City which are irremediably bad—places on which
the uninterrupted presence of epidemic disease are stamped
se absolutely unfit for human habitation ; places where drain-
age and water supply indeed are defective, but where the
perfection of these necessaries might exist in all probability
witheut giving healthiness to the inhabitants. The predoroi-
sant evil in the cases referred to is their thorough impute- '
bility of ventilation.
Tee Iphabitan'e of open streets can hardly conceive the
complicated turnings, the narrow inlets, the close wallets '
of houses, and the high barriers of lieht and air, which as,
the common characteristics of our courts and alleys, and
which give an additional noxiousness oven to the cm-
pools and their filthiness. There are very few who,
without personal verification, would credit an mown
that might be given of the worst of such dwelling places.
Let any one, however, who would do lull justice to this
frightful subject visit the portion of Bishop[ ate which lies east
of Houndsclitch, or the upper portion of Cripplegate, which
contains some of the wont, though by no mean, the only in-
stances of pestilential residence. A man of ordinary diner
sions almost hesitates, lest he should wedge himself immov-
ably In the low and narrow crevice which is called the ea-
teat co to come such court or alley ; and having paned that
ordeal, he finds himself as is a well, with little light, withless
ventilation, amid a dense postulation of human being., with
ea atmosphere hardly respirable from its closeness sad pollee
lien. Toe stranger, during his visit, feels his breathing con-
strained, as though he were in a diving-bell; and 'epee'.
mees afterwards a sensible and immediate relief sa he
emerges again into the comparatively open street.
Now, I am prepared to show that there are many, very
many, courts winds the City, to which the above description
accurately applies—courts and alleys hemmed in on all sides
by higher bonen, having no possibility of any current of
air, and (worst of all) sometimes so constructed back to
back as to forbid the advantage of double windows or back.
doers, and thus to render the house as perfectly a cads-ear
est of the court, se the court is a clef-de-sae out of the next
theroughtan.
It is surely superfluous to observe that these localities are
' utterly incompatible with health. Among the dense popu-
lation it is rare to see any other appearance than that of
squalid sickness and misery ; and the children, who are re-
produced with the fertility of a rabbit n arren, perish in
early infancy. In the wont localities probably not more
than half the children born survive their fifth year, and of
the 3,799 deaths registered last year in the City of London
generally, 1,410 were at or under seven years of ape.
Typhus prevails there too, not as an occasional visitor, but
as an habitual pestilence.
It is impossible for we, by numbers, to give you an exact
knowledge of the fatality of such spots, because in the
greater part of the City, hospitals, dispensaries, and private
practice divide the treatment of the sick with the Ismochial
officers, and diminish the returns of sickners which those
officers would etherwire have to show. But this I may tell
you, as en illustration of what I state, that in the few houses
of Seven Step alley and its two offsets (Amelbsplaos and
Turtisruntarei: there occurred last year 183 paroobial mem
of fever; in •Inees-plaos and Pnaeorequari, 178 cases
(think, gentlemen
__e if this had occurred in Southampton-
lace and annei-equan 1) ; that behind the seat side of
HM►opegate, the small distance from Widegate-street to
Now-street, theme Mee 126 eases; that behind the west side
teem Primrose-Wart to Half-moon-street, there were 246
meg; then the parish of Cripplegete had 364 cafes over and
shale Ibe =mbar (probably a very
erf large one) treated by
phone genetitienere, by hospitals, and especially by dile
Illatilarly, Monett with lose sot informant,
IllirmingL esallied to trace liner to a terrible extent, in very
many saw Imelda oldie City, even on the verge of he
better midenesse and sem behind its wealthiest thorough-
fares; it rtantsetwarest. in Plough-court and place, in
Peppletemenree EfeellPmesurt, Black-hone.slley, Union-
town. Plittellieweart is Holborn. Field-lane ; in the courts
right ems kik of Xispeirret, Smithfield, in Hanging-sword-
alley, and La vicinity, in Peahen-court. in Bell-alley, and its
neighbourhood in Priest's-alley, in Beer-lane, in Fan'*
alley he liireminabuildings, and in the whole large epos
whisk elealehen Ludgate-hill to beside the river.

As a Palliative mitteenn, applicable in many of the least
aggravated lutaues, I may suggest the removal of unne-
cessary walls which intercept the current of air from place
to place; the 'kenestion of enactor openings In rarities
blind courts ; and, net least, In regard of many houses thus
situated, the. admission of Witt and air by additional
windows. I easnOt par this portion of the:subject without
recording my opinion that the operation of the window tel
is is direct opposition to the sanitary interests of the
people, and i swat venture te uprise-my hope that some
different method of assessment may presently be adopted,
is plus of mu whisk presses on the occupier Is proportion
to the healthiness of his tenement. I think it very de-
sirabie, Indeed almost indispeneable, that your honour-
able court should have the power, under certain circus-
steams, to order and inform the opening of additional win-
dows In bonne occupied by large numbers of persons, when
your officer of health may report their ventilation defective ;
and if it should seem expedient to you to seek this authority
from the legislature, it might with the greatest advantage be
accompanied by some eoneess:on from her Majesty's govern-
ment, to the effect that the formation of additional windows
occurring thus under your orders for the Immune:o neces-
sities of health and hie, should not occasion any further
amassment on the occupiers of the house.