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PIGEON NUISANCE
The firm of pigeon catchers employed under contract by the City Corporation have continued
to give satisfaction. The Corporation's policy is not entirely to exterminate all pigeons but to
control their numbers to such proportions as will ensure that the pleasure they give to residents
and visitors is not outweighed by the nuisance they cause.
The very small number of complaints received during the year of damage caused by these
birds justifies the Medical Officer in his belief that the activities of the contractor are being well
directed in achieving a nice balance between the aesthetically pleasing and the hygienically
satisfactory.
During the year 1,203 pigeons were humanely trapped and killed.
Early in the year an article appeared in a daily paper stating that psittacosis could be
caught from pigeons. The article could be read to infer that this discovery was new. It has,
however, been known for many years that pigeons are prone to this disease and can communicate
it to man. The virus comes down the bird's nostrils whence it is transferred to its feathers by
constant pecking. Anybody handling such pigeons could easily become infected. Psittacosis is
not fatal in humans but can be a "pretty acute" illness.
On two occasions six pigeons were caught in the City and submitted to bacteriological
examination. In the first instance psittacosis-like virus was isolated from one of the birds, and
in the second instance one bird had a high titre of complement fixing antibody to psittacosis in
its serum, indicating that it had been infected and was probably a carrier of the virus.
EXCAVATION OF HUMAN REMAINS
Human remains which are unearthed in the course of excavation are, with the sanction of the
Home Office, the Ecclesiastical Authorities, the City Coroner and the City Police, reverently reinterred
in an approved burial ground or cremated at an established crematorium.
During the year all human remains were removed from the crypt of the St. Swithun London
Stone Church in Cannon Street and taken to a cemetery in Surrey where they were re-interred. The
crypt has been closed for burial since 1853. The majority of the remains were in lead coffins
most of which were identifiable, the names on the coffins still being legible.
During excavation work on a building site bounded by Farringdon Street, Stonecutter Street
and Shoe Lane some human remains were discovered. The bones were of great age and Mr. N.C.
Cook, B.A., F.S.A., The Keeper of the Guildhall Museum considered that the bodies were probably
buried prior to the Great Fire of London. The absence of coffins suggested that the site had
been a Plague Pit in 1665. The British Museum became interested in these relics and as a result
of their request the Home Office gave permission for some of the bones to be retained in the
British Museum (Natural History). The rest of the remains were cremated at the City of London
Crematorium at Little IIford.
CANCER DIAGNOSIS
The City Corporation have for some years been considering the advisability and practicability
of inaugurating a Scheme in the City to provide, for members of the public, free examination
(including X-ray photography) for the purpose of diagnosing whether such person is suffering from
cancer or not, and by publicity to encourage people to take advantage of this scheme so as to
ensure that, if the disease is present, it is diagnosed and treated in its early stages.
During 1958 it was decided to approach the Governors of St. Bartholomew's Hospital with a
view to enlisting their co-operation in establishing a clinic for the diagnosing of cancer, in that
hospital.
About the beginning of the present century, medical and public opinion began to grow in
favour of an all-out attack on what was then, still, in the words of John Bunyan "Captain ofthe
men of death". In fact the first move in that direction came many years before in the City of
London, where at 6 Liverpool Street on June 13th 1848, a large house was opened "... to maintain
a Public Dispensary at which persons suffering from Affections of the Chest might receive
gratuitous advice and medicine". This was because in the words of the first Annual Report of
the Dispensary for the year 1848, "several gentlemen had prominently brought under their notice
the great frequency and fatality of Diseases of the Chest among the indigent portion of the population
and the unavoidably imperfect provision for their treatment in the Northern and Eastern
districts of the Metropolis". The idea first started in the City, spread rapidly, so that there was
soon a network of Tuberculosis Dispensaries throughout the United Kingdom. (We still have a
"City of London Tuberculosis Dispensary" housed in the Out-patient Department of St. Bartholomew's
Hospital).
The pattern of growth of tuberculosis control has been dwelt upon at some length, because
its apparent success has led to the idea that similar success might attend a plan of campaign
directed against cancer, another great killer of mankind.
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