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14
which had at various times been made the subject of complaint by the neighbours. 1
may briefly summarise it:—
1.° There were discovered 54 separate establishments—27 in the East and 27 in the
West Sub-district—containing an aggregate of 924 cows, 541 in the East, and
383 in the West Sub-district. In the largest establishment 293 cows were kept,
in the next largest 119, and the remainder ranged from 2 to 46.
2.° In only 11 were there 1,000 cubic feet of air allowed to each cow; in 28 the
space was between 500 and 1,000; in 15 it was under 500; in 1 it was as little
as 254 ! The ventilation of the sheds was mostly defective.
3.° Eighteen of the sheds were very dirty, in many others the paving and drainage
were defective.
4.° The arrangements for storing and removing the dung varied. In 12 instances it
was stored within the cow-house itself; in some others so near to it as to
endanger the health of the cows. In few instances were the arrangements
such as I could approve of, being such as were calculated to create very
offensive effluvia, and produce an injurious effect upon the health of those
residing in the vicinity.
5.° In few instances could I approve of the mode in which the grains were kept.
In some I found either that no pains were taken to prevent their becoming
offensive, by subjecting them to proper draining, or the sour liquid that exuded
flowed unrestrained over the unpaved surface of the yard, or over the paving
of the cow shed itself.
6.° My inquires led me to conclude, that although there was on the whole less
disease among (he cows than in some previous years; yet, that the losses of
the cowkeepers were by no means small. The principal disease that prevailed
was "pleuro-pneumonia" or "lung disease," under which name I could not avoid
thinking that the cowkeepers embraced indiscriminately various other maladies,
probably of a typhous character. According to the statement of the largest
keeper in the parish, only about half of the cows, newly arrived from the
country, escape attack within the first 2 months of their confinement in the
sheds. For the most part, the cows attacked are immediately sold for slaughtering.
So far as the facts I ascertained went, the amount of disease was inversely
to the capacity of the sheds, and higher where the air breathed by the cows was
contaminated by the storing of the manure within the sheds.*
7.° There can be no question that in several instances cow-keeping is conducted in
Islington, so negligently as, directly or indirectly, to create nuisances and to
endanger health. The unhealthy manner in which cows are often kept
is calculated to furnish a constant supply of "hazardous" or unwholesome
meat to the shops.f
27. In the parish of Marylebone, regulations which were approved of by the Cowkeepers'
Association, were enjoined by the Vestry, and agreed to and adopted by the
cowkeepers of the parish, in a friendly conference with the local authorities, with the
effect of obviating legal proceedings. If the Sanitary Committee were to take a
similar step, I cannot but think that great benefit would result in Islington.
TRADE NUISANCES.
29. In my last Annual Report I gave an account of the offensive trades carried on
at Belle Isle, and the proceedings which had been taken for their control. Notwithstanding
that the majority of those who carry them on have on their premises apparatus,
by the aid of which the offensive effluvia given off during the processes might
be intercepted or destroyed, numerous and grievious complaints continue to be made,
and I can testify that these are not unfounded. Since the commencement of last year,
* The particulars are given in my Report to the Committee.
†The result of inquiries into this subject is embodied in an article entitled "Diseased Meat and
Public Health,"—Brit, and For. Med.-Chur. Rev., Jan., 1858, page 87—to which I may refer you.