An examination of the statements contained in the papers relating to the fetid irrigations around the city of Edinburgh ... / [William Tait].

Tait, William

Date:: 1839

Credit: An examination of the statements contained in the papers relating to the fetid irrigations around the city of Edinburgh ... / [William Tait]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$atmosphere of a small, crowded, and ill-ventilated dissecting-room, it certainly would be absurd and unphilosopbical to conclude, that it was prejudicial to health when diluted with the free and flitting air, till scarcely a single trace of its offensiveness remained. The facts to which we intend next to refer, are better calculated to illustrate the present subject. About a mile from the north-east extre¬ mity ol Paris, at. Montl’nrpm, almost the whole ordure from the “ fosses d'amance” of that, large and populous city, is collected together, and piled up till it undergoes a sort of fermentation, and becomes solid and dry enough to be exported, or driven away for agricultural purposes. PomuIon this, there is also in the same neighbourhood that incompara¬ ble stable of tilth and nastiness, the enormous slaughterhouse at Mont- fm;on. where between \'2 and 18,000 horses are killed annuallyand where also are the abodes of those employed in the disgusting occupa¬ tion of making music strings, from the intestines of animals. The blood which escapes from the slaughtered animals, is allowed to flow on the ground, into which it soaks, forming a compost of disgusting fetor ; the flesh is separated from the bones, and sold as food tor dogs, pigs, cats, and man ! The viscera, with their contents, are thrown together in Inigo masses, and the carcases arc carried off to a place appropriated for them ; and the bones, after being completely stripped, are chiefly con¬ sumed in the manufacture of ammonia ami animal charcoal. In this nbomiunble situation, whero so many disgusting occupations are carried on, and where the effluvia is almost intolerable. wo must surc’y And the inhabitants ** weak, languid, sallow.*' bowed down under a primature old age. and giving “ sad and lingering experience of a Ittr:.: rUxnh. But, no ** we aw told, savs the MiHlkv-Chinirsjiesd Review •• oi the • Ui dm of the men : the * bnllzHK and the ’ of the women: and the * Kwe ft mint atfai- ♦v.WV ot the int.-mts. who aw somor.wos middled * > . yY y. • u’W »it♦vtfcNNN^»\*mm* wi ! The tut Mtb tut tf tW mbs- tin tmers ot gut strings, and of the tan tuns, ami of then ,r. • -cs 'v yv\V*u/ Wlvat .> especial’) wrertbv of twycc •>,$