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which the notice is served in due course, I have given this certificate,
and shall continue to do so upon the registration of deaths from infectious
diseases, when each case has been verified by the inquiries of the
Inspector at the houses indicated, or upon receiving information of
cases of infectious disease after due inquiry by the Inspector, both at
the house itself, and of the medical attendant when necessary. I
confess that I do not myself see how else this beneficial Section
could have been thoroughly put in force, as it has been in Islington,
if no disinfection could have been done unless in cases where the
Medical Officer of Health had himself visited the patients in concert
with their medical attendants, and have ascertained for himself the
nature of their diseases. Such a thing is impossible, and I must
continue to be content in running the risk of having my certificates
contemned; for although hearsay evidence may be improper in a
Court of Justice, it is a necessity in our sanitary work that the
reports of our Inspectors should be accepted as reliable, and acted
upon in all such matters, other evidence being quite superfluous in
all ordinary cases.
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSES and COW HOUSES IN
ISLINGTON.
At the Annual Licensing of 1875 there were 97 applications for
the renewal of licences to Slaughter Houses, and 71 applications for
the renewal of licences to Cow Houses, and one fresh application for
a licence to a proposed Cow House.
I had again as usual previously visited and inspected the whole
of these 169 premises, and had reported respecting them to the
Sanitary Committee, and upon their recommendation the Vestry
authorised an absolute opposition to the new application for a Cow
House licence, and the renewal of licences to three of the Slaughter
Houses, two of the latter having been unsuccessfully opposed at the
previous licensing.
Upon this occasion the Metropolitan Board of Works also
opposed in the two cases just mentioned, and the licenses were
refused, one of the applicants not being in attendance. In the
third Slaughter House case, opposed by the Vestry, some of the
neighbouring inhabitants, who had several times complained to the