View report page

21
DAIRIES AND MILKSHOPS.
It is greatly to be regretted that the control of milk storage
and distribution in the Parish is not in the hands of your
Sanitary Department. Milk, more than any other kind of food,
requires great precautions to be taken to prevent its contamination,
and places where milk is kept should be under closer and
more constant supervision than at present.
WATER SUPPLY.
During the year a foul surface well, which supplied several
households at Highgate, has been closed. With the facilities
for obtaining pure water no reason exists for the continued use
of shallow wells for domestic water supply. The risks attending
the use of such water are still insufficiently appreciated. Especial
attention has also been paid to the cleanly condition of cisterns,
particularly as a precaution against one fatal Zymotic disease
ravaging Europe. Before another year rolls over our heads the
whole Parish of St. Pancras will be supplied with water on the
constant system, with the exception of a narrow belt of houses
contiguous to Regent's Park supplied by the West Middlesex
Water Company. Unfortunately the improvement thus effected
by the New River Company is accompanied with some heartburning
created by the stringent requirements of the Company.
Nevertheless a sanitary safeguard of such benefit to St. Pancras
should be gratefully welcomed by parishioners who estimate
health above all other considerations.
DUST REMOVAL.
The removal of domestic refuse does not directly form part of
the duties of your Sanitary Department, except that it concerns
the health of the inhabitants. The method adopted in London
generally is scarcely in accordance with the best interests of the
public health.
OPEN SPACES.
During the year the Burial Ground of St. Andrew's has been
opened as a public garden and a breathing space for the inhabitants
of the closely crowded district of Gray's Inn Road, or
No, 8 Ward, and cannot fail to have a beneficial effect. The
Burial Ground of St. George's, Bloomsbury, which has now for
some time past been maintained as a public garden, fails partly
in its purpose from want of easy access. The adjoining Burial
Ground of St, George the Martyr might with advantage be
thrown into the same open space, and the combined gardens