View report page

16
causes a difficulty, which may be hereafter removed, in carrying
off the large amount of excretions by the drains, which consequently
become frequently stopped up.
During the year, 14 deaths occurred in Corporation Buildings,
5 from Zymotic diseases, among about 811 inhabitants. In
Cobden Buildings, the deaths were 2, both from Zymotic diseases,
among about 180 inhabitants.
Moreover, the price at which the tenements are let, is above
that which the really poor, who require the most perfection of
sanitary arrangements, can pay.
The short period during which these buildings have been
opened, prevents the making of a fair comparison of the mortality
occurring in them with that of the district in general.
Bakehouses. The Bakehouses in the district were visited
and examined by the Sanitary Committee and myself. They
were 73 in number; and the necessary cleansings required in some
instances were ordered to be effected.
Slaughter-houses. The Slaughter-houses were also
visited iu the same way, and the necessary improvements ordered
to be made. The visitation of these renders important service, in
interfering with the accumulation and retention of refuse upon
the premises, and the prevention of the keeping of animals so as to
be a nuisance. The Slaughter-houses were 37, kept by 36 butchers.
Cow-houses. The Cow-houses were also inspected by the
Sanitary Committee and myself. They were 28 in number, kept
by 24 cow-keepers. At the time they were visited, that terrible
disease, the Cattle Plague, had been devastating the cows in the
district.
In 1864, the number of cows was 652. When the cow-houses
were inspected in October, 1865, the number was only 153; and
by the end of the year the number was still further reduced.
The first cow died of the disease on the 10th of July, the remainder
of a batch of 20 in one cow-yard being rapidly swept off.
It is interesting to notice that out of 250 cows kept by one cowkeeper,
all but 31 either died of the disease, or were killed while
suffering from it, these escaping the disease or passing through
it favorably.
The disease prevailed in all the cow-sheds. Some 'of those
which suffered least, were by no means the best ventilated. Those
in which the cows were most numerous, were generally soonest
infected, independently of the question of ventilation; the cause
probably depending upon the exchange of the animals, and the
resulting importation of the infection.