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Unless a law, much more stringent than any at present in force, should be
enacted to line any owner whose premises are found in a filthy state, it does
not appear that more rapid action can be taken by an Inspector to prevent
nuisances than has been taken in the past year. But some such law really is
wanted, for there are numerous streets where, as soon as the Inspector's back
is turned nuisances reaccumulate in every house as a matter of course, until he
again comes that way.*
In the course of 1865-6, new brick sewers have been constructed where
sewers were deficient or ill-acting, in Lincoln-court, in George-street, Newstreet,
and Streatham-street, in Little Queen-street, and in the Vinegar-yard
and Lascelles-place. New pipe sewers have been constructed in Hampshire
Hog-yard, in Church-passage, and lately in Russell and Coram-places. Many
sewers have been repaired and improved. Particulars respecting these works
will be found in the Surveyor's report. Slaughter-houses, bakeries, and cowhouses
have been as usual under supervision. No change in the licensing
arrangements has to be reported, nor have any legal proceedings been had recourse
to in respect of such places.
In regard of the cow-houses in 1865, special interest attaches from the
prevalence in them of contagious cattle plague. The first case of this disease
known to have occurred in England, was on June 21th, in a cow-shed of Lambeth,
and three days later cases occurred in a shed at Islington. On July
3rd, 40 cows had been attacked in various parts of the metropolis, and half
of them were dead, and in spite of measures adopted by the Government
for arresting the disease, 7238 cattle are known to have been attacked before
the end of the year in the metropolis alone.
In St. Giles's district the first shed attacked was that of Mr. Rowe, in
Great Coram-street, the smallest, apparently the most isolated and one of the
best conducted sheds of the district. For some weeks no other cow-house was
attacked, but soon the disease appeared in the numerous sheds of South Sr.
Giles's, and many owners suffered severe losses, while others disposed of their
whole stock to avoid the risk of their cows being carried off by the plague. At
the end of the year there were only 20 or 30 cows in all the sheds of the district,
instead of the usual number of 157. It is matter for thankfulness that,
although the milk and flesh of the diseased animals must in many cases have
been consumed as human food, there is no evidence of any disease being produced
in man by the prevalence of the cattle plague.
During the year 1865-6, important Bills for improving the sanitary condition
of the population have been introduced into Parliament, both by
Government and by private members. A Public Health Bill, amending the
Nuisances Removal and other Acts, and a Vaccination Bill were brought in
by Government. A Bill to facilitate the provision of healthy tenements for
the poor has actually passed the legislature, and another Bill intending to
* Referring to the efforts that have been made for some years in this district to
lessen the disastrous results of overcrowding, it is gratifying to quote the following
acknowledgement from an independent authority of the character of results obtained:-
"A regular system of visitation and regulation has long been instituted in St. Giles,
and is now begun in the Strand and elsewhere. The police, who administer the Common
Lodgings Act in the Metropolis, and had abundant means of knowing, said St.
Giles's was the only district in which they felt the action of the local authorities in the
matter. This St. Giles's administration was in fact a very unusually energetic enforcement
of the twenty-ninth section. Single-room tenements were measured and registered,
and a few ticketed with the numbers which the authorities and the landlord agreed to
permit to live in each room, Prosecutions were instituted wherever any gross violations
of the regulations of the rooms were detected. The justices to whom recourse w as made
had from the first determined on the principle that each adult person required 400 cubic
feet of air. The credit of the essential and responsible step belongs to the late Mr.
Jardine."—Dr. Hunter's Report to the Med. Of. of the Privy Council—8th Report of
Med. Off., 1866.