View report page

4
of a second class order, and for this reason:— Where the
animals are stall-fed, their food often and chiefly consists,
during the summer months, of rye grass, clover, &c., grown
on some suburban sewerage farm. This alone, I think,
points to an element of danger.
On the other hand, if the animals are turned out to
grass, the water they drink is often from some brook or
stream flowing through the meadows, which may or may not
be contaminated with sewerage, or with perhaps the effluent
water from a neighbouring sewerage farm. This, though
supposed to be pure and innocuous, is, as a matter of fact,
very often not so.
Again, what more likely in the case of dishonest milk
sellers or their employes than that some of this stream water
is mixed with the milk and the disease spread broadcast.
All this points to the necessity of boiling the milk. It
should be done immediately on being received from the milk
purveyor and allowed to stand before using. This, in a
great measure, does away with the peculiar taste of boiled
milk.
Whooping cough was epidemic during the first six
months of the year ; and though there was such a marked
increase in the number of deaths and the mortality greater
than in any of the preceding ten years, it did not reach
the decennial average of greater London. It was through
this disease that the zymotic death rate was high.
Marriages.
During the year 1888 there were 394 Marriages in the
Parish of Lewisham, of which 303 were solemnised in the
various Churches, 35 in Dissenting Chapels, and 56 at the
Registrar's Office.
During the same period there were 116 in the Hamlet of
Penge, of which 92 were solemnised in Churches, 11 in Dissenting
Chapels, and 13 at the Registrar's Office.