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Other nuisances to the number of two hundred and eighty-seven were
abated.
They have seized as unfit for food the following; 43 pads and 2 barrels of
plaice, 26 pads and 3 boxes of mackerel, 1 box of herrings, 30 pounds of eels,
a barrel of sprats, 2 barrels of gurnets, 1 pad of mixed fish, 1 bushel of periwinkles,
652 rabbits, 1000 pounds of American beef, and a large quantity of
rotten oranges, plums, and other fruit.
In addition to these works, there have been the monthly inspections of 90
licensed slaughter-houses, and 75 licensed cow-houses, and the six-monthly inspections
of all the bakehouses in the Parish, also of the various mews, wharves,
sausage and tripe shops, cats' meat shops, and the several street-markets from
week to week.
In the Appendix is given an account of the new sewers constructed during
the year 1866. A great deal more has been done than in any previous year.
Of sewers, 3 feet 9 inches by 2 feet six inches, 2688 feet have been constructed,
and of pipe drainage, 3079 feet have been laid down. In 13 streets or other
places, the sewers were repaired.
Besides these works done by the Vestry contractor, 1545 feet of sewerage
have been provided by private builders.
If a similar amount of drainage were constructed every year, in a very short
time the main drainage of St. Pancras would be completed.
Whilst I have been engaged in writing this Report, the Vestry have decided
on appointing a Clerk for the Sanitary Department, and a third Sanitary
Inspector.
I trust that this measure may be regarded as a good omen, and as an indication
that you, Gentlemen, are resolved in future, to regard Sanitary improvements
with more seriousness, and to prosecute them with greater energy than
you have ever yet done.
Every year the importance of the prevention of disease is becoming more
fully recognised, and the maxim that "prevention is better than cure" is receiving
greater practical attention. Parliament passed last year an important
Act (the Sanitary Act, 1866), which imposes several fresh duties upon all
local boards of health or nuisance authorities. In St. Pancras, the Vestry is the
nuisance authority. One of the most important clauses in that Act is the 35th
Section, which empowers you, under the sanction of the Secretary of State, to
make regulations for houses let out in lodgings to a number of distinct families.
The provisions of the Nuisance Removal Acts, the Metropolis Local Management
Acts, and the Common Lodging-Houses Act, fail to ensure the carrying out of
many things which are necessary, to prevent some of these houses from becoming
hot-beds of disease.
By adoption of this Section, which the Secretary of State will at once permit,
on your making application to him, you will be enabled to frame regulations
for the registration of such lodging-houses as you think right, for the
limitation of overcrowding in these houses, for enforcing a proper water supply
and privy accommodation, a periodical cleansing of the houses and passages, and
suitable drainage and ventilation. By previous Acts of Parliament, nearly all
these things could be enforced by a roundabout process; the object of this section
is to fix the responsibility for the wholesome condition of lodging houses on