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27
I add a list of works executed in my department,
chiefly by the labours of your Sanitary Inspectors, during
the twelve months which ended on the 31st March, 1866.
These works, owing in great measure to the progress of
sewerage throughout the parish, have been in some respects
considerably more numerous than such works had been
during several preceding years.
I have continued to examine periodically the gas
supplied by the South Metropolitan Gas Company, and
to furnish you with the results of my examinations, which
so far as they have gone have always been satisfactory.
I have continued also, with the valuable assistance of my
friend, Dr. Bernays, lecturer on chemistry at St. Thomas's
Hospital, to test monthly the waters supplied respectively
by the Kent, Southwark and Yauxhall and Lambeth
Water Companies, and have generally, up to the time to
which this Report relates, found their chemical condition
fairly good.
I may add that the outbreak of the cattle plague, in the
cow-sheds of our parish, threw for a time a considerable
amount of extra work on the Inspectors and myself; that,
inasmuch as the cow-sheds had been placed under the
supervision of the Vestry, and it was a question at first
how much the spread of the disease might be due to their
insalubrious condition, and subsequently whether the
existence of the plague in them was likely directly or
indirectly to affect the health of human beings, it became
necessary to examine carefully into their condition, and to