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9
condition; some of them, I feul satisfied, ought not to be allowed to exist
at all where they are situated. Nevertheless, with one exception, all that applied
to the Magistrates received their licences for the year, on the ground that, as it
was the first occasion of licensing, and there had been but little time for amendment,
the utmost leniency should be shown in carrying out the Act of Parliament.
All the licences, however, were granted with the understanding that the places
should be put into a state satisfactory to the local authority and myself. I am sorry
to say that in many instances thi3 condition has not been fulfilled. At the time
I write this Report I am engaged in a renewed inspection, and take the opportunity
to recall to the minds of the cow keepers the condition on which their licences
were granted, pointing out that the breach of it will throw an obstacle in the way
of their renewal, and urging the completion of the necessary works before the hot
weather of the summer season sets in. The number of cow houses (separate
establishments) licensed, was 69, viz., 31 in the Western and 38 in the Eastern
half of the Parish. The slaughter houses were also, as usual, inspected at
Michaelmas, and also from time to time during the year. The application for
licence to one Slaughter House only was refused. It had been refused on a former
application also. Should the Bill for the Regulation of Bakehouses, now
before Parliament, become law, another and onerous duty will be laid upon your
Sanitary Officers. I cannot, however, regard the provisions of the Bill with any
feelings but those of satisfaction. From what I have seen of the smaller bakehouses
in Islington, I imagine that their dirty and unventilated state is not
surpassed by bakehouses in other Parishes, and that we shall find abundance of
work prepared for us in this department of our labour.
REVIEW OF THE DISTRICT MORTALITY DURING
THREE YEARS.
11. Before concluding my Report, I beg to direct your attention to two Tables
which appear amongst those which complete it. Tables VI. and VII. exhibit the
mortality from all causes, from certain classes of disease and of children in
each of the sanitary districts into which last year I divided our Parish. Their
construction, of course, involved a new distribution of the mortality, street by
street, for the year 1860. Taking the central year, 1801, and the M.S. census
papers obligingly furnished me by the Registrar General, I am able thus to place the
sanitary state of the several districts in a more certain position than if the death
rate were calculated upon the mortality of a single year, by calculating the death
rate upon the three years, 1800, 1801, and 1862. In Table VII. I have calculated
the infant mortality in relation to the number of families in each district. The
results are very striking. I leave both Tables, however, for your own study since
the conclusions I should draw would be very similar to those announced in my last
Report. Had I left this calculation until next year, and redistributed the deaths
for 1859, so as to base it upon five years mortality instead of three, the gain to