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Kentish Town. Care is taken that the water supplied by these fountains shall
be well filtered, and as cool as can be managed. It will not be likely therefore
in hot weather to cause diarrhoea or cholera, as the water from many of the old
street pumps has been known to do. The fountains already in operation are
much frequented, and in some localities much valued. I believe, that after a
time, they will be much more resorted to, and I hope that there will, ere long,
be a number more of them erected.
The slaughter-houses have been visited periodically as in previous years.
There has been a great deal of unwholesome food, which had been exposed
for sale, seized by the Inspectors, and condemned by the Magistrates. During
the summer, which was very hot and much calculated to produce tainting of
animal food, there was an unusual quantity of unsound meat, poultry, and fish
offered for sale. There have been 46 parcels of bad fish seized, 8 lots of poultry,
6 of bacon, 9 lots of meat, about 1200 rabbits, 240 pine apples, and 6 parcels of
oranges. Besides the things actually seized, there is no doubt that, owing to
the vigilance of the Inspectors, many unsound and unwholesome things, which
would otherwise have been offered for sale, and probably sold on account of its
low price, have been kept back or taken to other districts. It might perhaps be
supposed that people could protect themselves from such things as these, but
experience proves the contrary; and it is astonishing what decayed food will be
bought by the poor, if they are allowed to do so.
I have again this year, as last, tabulated the mortality which has occurred in
the Mews of the Parish. See Table VIII. at the end. The deaths numbered
61, of which 21 were in Tottenham District, 17 in Regent's Park, 8 in Gray's
Inn, 10 in Somers Town, and 5 in Kentish Town. Of the whole number, 25
were from Zymotic diseases, viz., 3 from Small Pox, 5 from Measles, 3 from
Scarlet Fever, 5 from Hooping Cough, 2 from Diarrhoea, 4 from Low Fever,
and 3 from other Zymotic diseases. There were 14 deaths from diseases of the
organs of respiration, including Phthisis, and 8 from nervous diseases of infants.
Of the whole number who died, 37 were children under 5 years of age.
The population residing in Mews is probably between 1500 and 1700, so that
the death-rate last year was very high, much higher than in the rest of the
Parish, about 36 or 40 per thousand.
Something has been done to render the dwelling-rooms over stables more
healthy; the paving, drainage, and water supply have been attended to, and
the ventilation of many of them has been improved. There is still, however,
great need of further improvement in them. There is in nearly all a free
communication between the stable and the dwelling, and the dwelling is
generally the place into which all the effluvia from the stable escapes. There is
very great cause for complaint in the way in which the manure is allowed to
remain in the mews yard. There is no regularity observed in carting away the
manure; it is removed at all hours of the day, and is allowed to accumulate
until there is a convenient opportunity of sending it away; so that at times
when farmers are busy in the country, and there are few carts come to London,
the dung is left to accumulate in great quantities, and when it is removed
is almost rotten and very offensive. This is the case generally at hay-making
time, and very frequently in fine weather, after wet, when the dung becomes
most offensive. It would be well if every one keeping cattle in Town was
obliged, under a penalty, to remove the dung at certain periods, and before
eight o'clock in the morning, and if there were contractors appointed to cart this
away, being obliged to visit every mews so many times a week.
By the 202nd section of the Metropolis Local Management Act, it is provided
that the Metropolitan Board of Works may make bye-laws for all works of
cleansing and of removing and disposing of refuse, and may impose such