London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Islington 1874

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington, Parish of St Mary]

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45
belonging to the same owner, the Justices were satisfied with the pump
having been removed ; the summons, therefore, with their approval
was withdrawn, the licence to the premises being no longer withheld.
And thus by means of persistent and persevering efforts for several
years upon the part of theVestry and their officers, those sources of the
greatest possible danger have been at last abolished, though much to
the discomfiture of the Cowkeepers.who throughout have clung to their
underground wells with great tenacity, as representing a certain
pecuniary value, their existence enabling them to avoid the expense
of a supply of water from the New River Company. The last of the
six summonses was against one of the contractors for allowing too
great an accumulation of offensive refuse to remain upon his Wharf
in the York Road, which was in use as a place for the deposit of
dust and refuse, much longer than was either necessary or proper, but
the Justices dismissed the summons, though without costs, upon the
ground that in their opinion this case came within the proviso of the
8th Section of " The Nuisances Removal Act for England, 1855,"
as " an accumulation or deposit that was necessary for the effectual
carrying on of a business, and that such deposit had not been kept
longer than was necessary for the purposes of such business."
THE DUSTING OF THE PARISH.
In the note to which reference has already been made at the
bottom of Table X. it is recorded that during the twelve months over
which the Table extends, viz. :—Lady Day, 1874, to Lady Day, 1875,
the Inspector of Dust visited 26,579 houses, and found that dust was
required to be removed from 10,420, or just over 39 per cent, of the
houses visited. In the previous year the visits were 26,157, an^ the
removals 9,166, or rather more than 35 per cent.
To these 10,420 there must be added the 5,945 removals which
were reported as being necessary by the other Inspectors, making a
total of 16,345, premises from which the contractors were required
to remove dust, consequent upon the initiative of your Inspectors, as
compared with a total of 11,432 in 1873-74. During the same
period letters and postal cards were recorded in the Sanitary
Department, requesting the removal of dust from 14,596 premises,
and there were also entries in relation to removal from 6,185
premises, owing to personal applications which were made at the