View report page

13
Cowhouses.—The cowhouses in the District have been
periodically inspected; some of them are most inappropriatelysituated
in localities surrounded by habitations, and some
require an outlay for repaying and draining. Their state of
cleanliness differs materially at different times.
Great importance attaches to these necessary establishments
since the occurrence of cattle plague; and, if possible,
still greater now, since milk has been demonstrated to be a
vehicle in which the poison germs of typhoid fever may
be disseminated amongst human beings. At Marylebone,
Islington, Leeds, and Penrith, outbreaks of fever have
arisen from this cause. Milk is the most important of all
aliments, as many infants derive their sole nutriment from
it, and invalids and children are dependent upon it as an
article of diet. It is liable, however, to absorb impurities
both from air and water; therefore scrupulous care must be
used to remove all noxious effluvia from the neighbourhood of
dairies. Water is used occasionally to increase bulk in milk,
and this liquid, when impure, has been shown to be the means
of conveying disease.
Not only the health of the cows, therefore, but the sanitary
state of the surroundings of the dairy require minute attention.
It appears to me, therefore, important that some
standard rules should be adopted as to the kind of buildings
appropriated for cowhouses and dairies, their cubic contents,
ventilation, paving, drainage, water supply, situation, proximity
to each other and to dwelling-houses; rules as to
washing, as to the daily removal of excrementitious matter,
&c., should be laid down by the Board for the guidance of its
officers and of the licensing magistrates.
Slaughter-houses.—Several complaints have been made
during the year of the butchering cattle in confined localities
and near to dwelling houses, and the offensive smell at times
arising from the non-removal of garbage. Some of the
slaughter-houses in this District are entered from the shop,
some are open to the roadway in which they are situated, and
are, no doubt, a source of great annoyance to the