View report page

25
pig-styes, and much more so than slaughter-houses,
are altogether beyond our control.
Most of the Cow Houses complained of are
well and carefully kept. The manure is removed
regularly at intervals of twenty-four hours, the
drainage is good, and as regards the construction
of the buildings there is little to object to, even
with a view to the health of the animals. The
fault lies not in these particulars, but in the situation
of the Cow Sheds, which are often surrounded
on all sides by rows of houses higher than themselves.
In the spaces thus enclosed the provision
of nature for diffusing and thus neutralizing offensive
emanations is frustrated; the air becomes
stagnant, and, consequently, in the summer, when
ventilation is felt to be more than ever a necessity,
the open windows only serve to introduce the
fcetor of decomposing excrements, a sure tell-tale
of those more subtle but more dangerous exhalations
from the lungs and skin which become mixed
with the atmosphere wherever a number of animals
are crowded together.
The question is felt to be one of time only. The
nuisances arising from slaughter houses have been
during the last three years controlled by a licensing
system, which has worked so well that it might
no doubt be extended with advantage to Cow
Sheds. The good done would be the more felt,
as the evils are more intolerable.