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unprofitable and after 1869 the Vestry paid contractors considerable sums for its
removal. Owing to the fall in the value of the refuse, the standard of dustmen
deteriorated and boys or lads were later employed instead of men. All of them
were allowed to engage in the practice known as " Totting," that is picking out
from the dust any saleable refuse such as rags, bones, glass, etc. to receive which bags
were usually hung on their carts. There were complaints that the contractors
were neglecting their work and to check collections the Vestry appointed an
Inspector of Dust, whose duty it was to do house-to-house inspections in those
districts most likely to be neglected by the contractors. Cards with the letter D
were distributed, which the contractors were bound under their contracts to take
notice of under penalties.
Dr. Corfield did not stay long in Islington and he was succeeded the following
year by Dr. Charles Meymott Tidy, who was not only Medical Officer of Health
but also appointed Food Analyst for the Parish. He was therefore particularly
interested in food adulteration and, in the first place gave his attention mostly
to milk. Out of 70 samples submitted, 11 were found to be watered. He
congratulated himself also upon the fact that out of 20 samples of bread, alum was
found in only 4.
There were a great number of small private slaughterhouses in the Parish
and control and inspection of carcases was quite impossible. Dr. Tidy therefore
advocated in 1872 the following :—
" There is no doubt that a public abattoir would be a great public advantage.
Cruelty in killing would be kept in check, a proper and complete supervision
of the animal and of the carcase prepared for sale would follow as a matter
of course. The diseased animal would be condemned by authority and got rid
of."
1873 was marked by the opening of the Mortuary and the Coroner's Court
and Dr. Tidy said that he hoped before long the Vestry would permit the erection
of a disinfecting chamber. (Delayed for 20 years !)
The Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings' Improvement Act, 1875, came into
force in 1875 and immediately Dr. Tidy and Mr. Collingwood, as Superintendent
Inspector, decided to make official representations that 308 houses situated in various
courts and alleys and other places in the Parish were unfit for human habitation.
An extremely severe epidemic of smallpox began in September, 1876 and
continued throughout 1877. "The disease broke out with great severity in the
Thornhill Ward, and especially among the poorer portion of the Bemerton district.
It was in this Ward that it first prevailed extensively following in this respect
the course of former epidemics." During the first seven weeks there were 163
cases in this Ward alone, and the disease subsequently spread to many other parts
of the Parish. At the end of 1877 the tally could be made up to 1,000 cases of
whom 181 died, giving a fatality rate of 18.1 per cent. The streets most severely
affected were Bemerton Street, Gifford Street, Storey Street, Freeling Street and
Queensland Road.
Cases of infectious disease were not notifiable by law at this time to the
Medical Officer of Health. Dr. Tidy first proposed in 1877 "that so that the
Sanitary Authority should not be ignorant of cases, I would support a plan laid
before the President of the Local Government Board by a deputation of Medical
Officers of Health that legislation should require the householder to give notice to
the Sanitary Authority of any case of infectious disease in the house under his
control within twenty-four hours of being informed of the same by the medical
attendant."