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100
forward to with considerable interest. The subject of "trade
refuse" is further dealt with at page 113 in a report thereon by
the Society of Medical Officers of Health.
At the date of the passing of the Slaughter-Houses (Metropolis)
Act 1874, the number of private slaughter-houses in the Metropolis
was 1429. At the end of 1880 the number had become
reduced to 90S by the gradual abolition of the least suitable of
the licensed premises.
LICENSED COWSHEDS.
The licensed cowsheds are 23 in number, viz., 15 in the district
north of Uxbridge Road, and 8 in the remainder of the Parish south
of that Road (vide Table XII. Appendix, for localities of premises
and names of licensees). The several sheds were as usual inspected
by the Works, Sanitary, and General Purposes Committee, from
whose report the following excerpts are taken. Referring to the
"Provisions" of the Regulations framed by the Metropolitan Board
of Works (Local Authority, under the Contagious Diseases Animals
Act, 1878,) the Committee observed that—
"Not one of the provisions is more important than that which requires
that ' every cow-shed shall be well paved with Stourbridge or other impervious
brick, or other impervious material, set with cement, properly bedded
on concrete, with a proper slope towards a gully-hole; and although the
Board required the paving of several of the sheds to be re-constructed, more
or less, to bring them into conformity with the Regulations, it is scarcely
too much to say that, with here and there an exception, this regulation has
not been carried out. The paving of many of the sheds is irregular, and,
beyond slight reparation it has undergone no improvement in the majority.
Speaking generally, the paving is usually of bricks which are not impervious;
the bricks are not set in cement; the jointing is more or less defective, and
it is probable that in nearly all cases the paving is not bedded on concrete.
"Provision 7 of the Regulations, moreover, requires the drains to be
trapped by an 'appropriate' trap, and the gully-hole to be covered with a
fixed or locked grating, &c. In the majority of the sheds the trap is of the
'bell' pattern, which cannot be deemed 'appropriate' for a cow-shed any
more than for a slaughter-house. 'Gratings' over the gully-holes are the
exception rather than the rule, and the covers, of whatever character, are
usually removeable. The same 'provision' requires the gully-hole, 'where
practicable,' to be 'outside the shed.' Should the paving be re-constructed
in conformity with the provision of the regulation, viz., 'with a proper
slope,' it would be 'practicable,' generally, to place the gully-hole outside