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In Holborn a special inspector is employed on this duty and a register is kept of the furnaces
in the district. Of these there are now fifty-six, and all are periodically inspected. There are nine
kinds of smoke consumer in use in the district and thirty-five furnaces are provided with one or
other of these kinds, twenty-one having no smoke consumer. Three new smoke consumers have been
supplied during the year. In Hammersmith, the work of smoke inspection devolves on the workshop
inspector, and the medical officer of health reports that one officer is insufficient for the proper
performance of both these duties.
The medical officer of health of Lambeth reports that " speaking generally, a decided improvement
has taken place in connection with nuisances from smoke in Lambeth parish, and the
improvement is likely to continue as firms are beginning to realise that they will no longer be allowed,
as hitherto, to pollute the atmosphere with dense volumes of black smoke, which are a nuisance and
injurious and dangerous to health."
The chief officer of the Public Control department of the London County Council reports that
during the twelve months ending the 31st March, 1900, 719 cases of smoke nuisances were brought to
the notice of sanitary authorities by the department. He adds that " so many improvements have been
made in recent years in furnace construction that with proper care in stoking no nuisance need be
caused." The discharge of excessive smoke should therefore be made an offence immediately punishable
upon the offence being proved.
Nuisance from stable manure.
During the year 1899 the Public Health Committee had under consideration complaints as to
nuisance from stable manure, and the means which might be adopted for obviating this nuisance.
In July the Committee reported to the Council as follows—
The Council frequently receives complaints as to nuisance arising from peat moss litter and other
stable manure at various premises in London, and on inquiry being made into the matter, it is generally
found that the nuisance occurs when the manure is removed from the receptacle into which it has been
placed and in the course of such removal which may take place two or three times a week. It has been
suggested that the nuisance would be obviated if the manure were removed direct from the stables and
placed into properly-constructed waggons or into movable covered receptables so that it could be taken
out of the yard without being further manipulated.
Section 21 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, enables a sanitary authority to deal with any
manufactory, building or premises used for any trade, business, process or manufacture, causing effluvia,
on complaint made by the medical officer of health, or any two legally-qualified medical practitioners, or
by any ten inhabitants of the district. The solicitor advises that, failing other means of remedying the
evil, a court might well be asked, in the case of livery stable, cab or omnibus proprietors, and other
similar businesses, to act under that section in the matter, but that in his opinion the case could also be
dealt with under the ordinary nuisance provisions of the Act (sections 2, 3, 4 and 5) as being a nuisance
which, in the opinion of the sanitary authority, is likely to recur, and that a court might under those
sections be asked to make a prohibition order which would probably have the effect of compelling the
occupier to make some such arrangement to obviate the nuisance as has been suggested.
We think much good might result if sanitary authorities were to endeavour to deal with recurring
nuisances from stable manure in one or other of the ways mentioned, and we have accordingly given
instructions for a circular letter to be sent to them on the subject. We report our action for the information
of the Council.
The medical officers of health of Paddington and Kensington state that the practice of
transferring manure direct from the stable to the cart is adopted in these districts. In Paddington,
" Carts are being slowly and gradually substituted for manure receptacles in accordance with the
foregoing principle. By loading the manure direct from the stalls into the cart and taking the cart
away without disturbing the manure, the diffusion of that particularly offensive odour which is
peculiar to peat manure is avoided." In Kensington, the vestry " induced the London General
Omnibus Company to place a vehicle in each of their yards in this parish for the reception of the
refuse on removals from the stables so that it might be taken away without further disturbance. The
London Road Car Company, and other large proprietors of horses, subsequently adopted this plan of
removal with satisfactory results, few complaints having since been received." Similar arrangements
have been made in connection with some stables in Shoreditch with good results. The abolition of
dung pits and the substitution of receptacles above the ground, to comply with the Council's by-law, has
made considerable progress in London. In Kensington, Dr. Dudfield, reporta 1,563 iron cages have
been erected, 725 brick receptacles have been abolished and 326 have been reconstructed. Of sunken
pits 566 have been abolished, and 74 have under special circumstances been improved and allowed to
remain. In Chelsea, Dr. Parkes reports, iron cages resting on a cemented base have been very largely
adopted. A few sunken dung pits remain in places where a receptacle above the surface of the
ground cannot be provided.
The reports of medical officers of health indicate that greater efforts were made during the year
to secure the frequent removal of manure, and in some districts prosecutions were instituted
with this object, thus in Marylebone a number of summonses all leading to convictions
were taken out against the occupiers of certain mews and in some other districts persons negligent
in this respect were fined. It appears, however, that owners of manure have increasing difficulties in
complying with the requirements of sanitary authorities and the need for an organised system of
removal is evident. The medical officer of health of Hampstead writes, that " No less than 389
orders were necessary for the removal of manure. Private owners of stables appear to have more and
more difficulty in securing the prompt removal of manure, especially in hay and harvest time. The
sanitary authority has power under section 36 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, to collect and
remove refuse of this sort within their district, but has no power to charge for such removal." This
matter was discussed in my annual report for the year 1898, in which year it was the subject of a
report by the Public Health Committee to the Council.
Although the nuisance caused by the use of peat moss manure in some stables has been
materially reduced by the adoption of the method of placing the manure directly into a cart when it