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28
THE SLAUGHTER-HOUSES AND COW-HOUSES IN
ISLINGTON, 1876-7.
At the Annual Licensing of 1876, there were ninety-four
applications for the renewal of licences to Slaughter-houses, and
sixty-eight applications for the renewal of licences to Cow-houses.
Prior to this, I had in accordance with my usual custom, visited
and carefully inspected the whole of the one hundred and sixty-two
premises to which these applications had reference, and had laid
before the Sanitary Committee my report in respect to them.
It was determined not to offer any opposition upon this
occasion to the renewals applied for, and licences were therefore
granted in due course to the ninety-four slaughter-houses and sixtyeight
cow-houses.
Notice had, however, been received of the intention of a person
to apply for a licence to keep cows upon certain premises, in respect
to which a similar application had been refused by the Justices at
the previous licensing, but having been informed that opposition
would be again offered, the applicant did not attend, and the
application was struck out.
THE DUSTING OF THE PARISH, 1876-7.
The Dusting of a Metropolitan District is, in my opinion, a
work of such paramount importance from a sanitary point of view,
as to divest it, in the eyes of a Medical Officer of Health, of a great
part of the prosaic and dusty character which it possesses, when
viewed solely through the begrimed and cloudy atmosphere that
usually surrounds it, and which is so peculiarly, if not exclusively,
its own.
However common or unclean many things may be in themselves,
they must, of course, be regarded with considerable interest whenever
they assume an aspect which may render them likely to have a
bearing upon the health of the community.
It is just so with Dusting: common and unclean though it be,
it becomes both interesting and important when we consider that its
neglect awakens alarm, vexation, and regret, and above all, creates
a positive and wide-spread danger only to be estimated by the
extent of the neglect.