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wash, or properly drain houses which were so dirty or dilapidated
or badly drained as to be a nuisance.
I also inspected, with the Committee, 92 cow-sheds and 85
slaughter-houses, and attended at the Sessions House, Prescott
Street, on two occasions. The magistrates refused to grant
licenses for one of the cow-sheds and five of the slaughter-houses,
the grounds of the refusal being that the cow-shed was in a
small yard adjoining a very large school; and that the butchers
refused to remove their horses from the slaughter-houses,
preferring to use them as stables rather than for slaughtering.
Many of these premises were inspected on several occasions, as
there was much difficulty in getting the necessary work done.
For the future greater care will have to be exercised as regards
the granting of licenses to private slaughter-houses, if there is
any chance of the clause in the Old Building Act, prohibiting
their continuance after 1874, being repealed.
On the request of the Sanitary Committee I drew up a
report of the steps nesessary to be taken if an epidemic of
cholera should occur, and append a copy thereof to my report.
I was also directed to write to the Committee of the Small-Pox
Hospital, Homerton, asking if a portion of the hospital or
grounds could be set apart for the reception of cholera patients
if required by this Board, but received a reply in the negative.
I also wrote to the Committee of the German Hospital, asking
a similar question, and received a very courteous reply in the
affirmative, so that it would not be necessary to provide a
cholera hospital for the district if the disease should reach us at
some future time.
The superintendence of the removal of dust has led to more
satisfactory results than formerly, as there were only 2603