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14
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
be carefully attended to. The districts in which the mortality is estimated
may be large, so that the great mortality of the noxious parts may be counterbalanced
by the small mortality of the healthy parts, and thus the division
may appear healthy on the whole, and so on. It was only by the most exact
and careful investigation, under the assistance of almost unprecedented means
and opportunities, that the excess of mortality from cholera in that part of
the population of the Metropolis which suffered from drinking sewage water
was brought to light and attributed to its true cause. Yet, from our knowledge
that pure air is provided by nature for us, and that effluvia have a
general noxious action, we may be sure that they are injurious to health.
But we need not wait for proof by death. Whatever is a nuisance shall
be done away with, says the law. We need not waste time in searching for
increased mortality, which we know must exist, but we can and must do away
with whatever may threaten human life. This is very satisfactory and proper ;
and it so happens that in very many instances there are simple and comparatively
inexpensive means of preventing any nuisance, if once the order be
given that it shall be done.*
SLAUGHTERHOUSES.
There are forty-six slaughterhouses in the district. They were all
examined prior to their being licensed last autumn. Some of them are small,
too much imbedded among inhabited buildings, and, in fact, makeshifts.
Over one is a room used as a workshop, which from mis-information was
supposed not to be so applied at the time the license was granted.
COWHOUSES.
There are 540 cows kept in the district; 256 in the northern half—bounded
on the south by Dorrington-street, Exmouth-street, Myddelton-street, and
Spencer-street; and 284 in the southern half. The cows are mostly in good
condition; although many of the cowhouses are ill-ventilated, too crowded,
the paving rotten and pervious to the dung and urine, and the drainage
otherwise imperfect. In some of the cowhouses and cowyards pigs are kept;
and in two or three, the dung and grains are kept in too close proximity to
inhabited rooms. The cow-premises are very great nuisances, wherever
they exist. The dung is not carted away sufficiently often, but lies undergoing
decomposition, so that when the under portions are stirred up for
removal, the stench evolved is most noxious and offensive. Again, large
quantities of grains are kept upon the premises; these " heat" and ferment,
becoming extremely sour and offensive; and when the lowest portions are
removed, the smell is abominable, particularly during the warm weather.
The dung and grain pits should be paved, and made sloping at the bottom
towards a drain ; the dung either removed during the night or every day;
and the large quantities of grains should not be allowed to be kept in crowded
localities. Water should be laid on, so that the dung-pits may be thoroughly
washed every time the dung is removed, or carts should be kept upon the
* These observations upon the influence of emanations upon health would not. have
been brought forward, did not manufacturers constantly assert their belief, or their
professed belief, that unless all around were struck with death, or died within a year
or two, these emanations were not injurious to health, and thus that causing them to
be done away with or abated was unnecessary interference.