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4
In 6 out of the 7 cases opposed, the Magistrates refused the license. As
this was the first year in which the law had come into force, the Bench were
disposed to be more lenient than they will be hereafter, in order to avoid any
unnecessary severity upon the trade.
A greater nuisance than the Slaughter-houses have been, are the Cowhouse*
on which I have before reported. During the month the death of one, and the
very severe illness of another have, I believe, been clearly traceable to the close
proximity of a Cowhouse, in which there was a large cesspool extending under
the back yard of the adjoining house. The death was that of a girl aged 6
years, the daughter of a Railway Porter, living in Little Drummond Street.
She died of a very malignant type of scarlet fever. I do not of course mean
to say that scarlet fever was produced by the effluvia from the drainage, but
that the malignancy which led to the fatal result was occasioned thereby. The
ehild had not been strongly, if at all, exposed to infection—and the disease is
not epidemic just now. The mother has also had the disease, but she will, it
is hoped, recover.
It is high time that these establishments should be sent into the country:
or, if this cannot be at once effected, should be placed under some restrictions
analogous to those recently placed upon the Slaughter-houses.
There are in this Parish 74 persons who keep cows—eleven of which art
in Somers' Town, and twelve in Ward No. 8. The numbers kept in these places
vary from 2 or 3, to as many as 30 or 40.
THOMAS HILLIER.