Interested persons have asserted that no injury to health has been proved to result from the existence of Slaughter-houses, even in densely populated and confined situations, but my own experience, and that of every practical physician, leads to an opposite opinion; in support of which I may recall the circumstance of my having recently reported to you an outbreak of scarlet fever in the vicinity of the Slaughter-houses in Aldgate, and again as lately as 14th March last a case of typhoid fever in Somerset Street, at the back of the Slaughter-houses, in a house in immediate connexion with the drains of the Slaughter-houses and the “blood house” adjoining. Moreover, it is a truism, established by recent researches in vital statistics, that slaughterers and butchers should be regarded as an unhealthy class of men, since they present a much higher rate of mortality than is observed in other trades. It is now established as an actuarial fact,[3] that this unhealthfulness of calling applies to all trades in connection with animal food, and this has been supposed to depend, in the case of butchers and slaughterers,--_Firstly_, from their constantly inhaling an atmosphere impregnated with animal matter;--_Secondly_, from their exposure to sudden alternations of temperature and the vicissitudes of weather; and,--_Thirdly_, from the large amount of animal food they are known to eat. It has also been stated with much force that they are necessarily exposed, more than other persons, to fevers and zymotic diseases, from their constantly breathing an atmosphere charged with decomposing, and often putrescent, animal matter. Respecting the separation of the Pounds from the Slaughter-houses, I still retain a strong conviction that such is both necessary and expedient, although I am not insensible of the difficulty of carrying it out in some few of the Slaughter-houses, whose cramped dimensions render this and other requisite accommodation well nigh impracticable. In these cases the owners should be compensated, and the places closed. Before a clear idea can be entertained of the possible and impossible improvements in these Slaughter-houses, I strongly recommend that a ground plan[4] be prepared of the whole block in High Street, showing to scale the exact size of each Shop, Lair, Slaughter-house, and out-building, with so much of the surrounding property as will provide a back way into the Slaughter-houses upon a give-and-take line as between immediate neighbours; should the owners find it their interest to combine for such purpose. By means of this plan it may be seen how far it may be practicable to reconstruct the whole of these places upon one agreed basis, and prevent, _inter alia_, the objectionable practice of driving the cattle across the public footways into the Slaughter-houses, so much complained of. BYE-LAW VI.