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is often housed, and emits effluvia which are anything but pleasant;
the nuisance, however, is increased tenfold when this grain is subjected
to the process of kiln drying. An indescribable sickeninng
stench then pervades the neighbouring streets, and diffuses itself
far and wide. Two notices were served on Mr. Fisher during
the past month; and as the back of his premises adjoins the schools
in Clarence Street, such inconveniences are felt by the children
and teachers that, should the nuisance be again repeated, some
more stringent measure than the mere service of a notice would
he advisable.
The state of the drainage in Pasfield's Rents has been several
times submitted to your consideration. Notices have been served
and a plan sent into the office, but as yet no active steps seem
to have been taken to remedy the existing evil.
The month of September was remarkably healthy; only thirty
deaths were registered, or about ten under the monthly average.
The small-pox is gradually disappearing.
The Parish is almost free from epidemic diseases, and the cases
of diarrhoea have been few, mild, and tractable. One person, not
a resident in Rotherhithe, but a stranger on a visit, died of cholera
in Rotherhithe Street.
Yours respectfully,
October, 1860. W. MURDOCH.
FIFTY-EIGHTH REPORT.
Gentlemen,
In the buildings called the Guano Sheds, situated on the east
side of the Surrey Canal near the Plough Bridge, an apparatus
has been erected for the extraction of the liquid matter contained
in fish. The apparatus consists of a boiler, a copper, a press, and
a tank. The boiler, a hollow iron cylinder, eight feet in its long
and two in its short diameter, and the copper holding some 220
or 230 gallons, are set in solid brickwork, with spaces left underneath
each of them respectively for fires. A curved iron pipe of
an inch bore passes from the top of the boiler to the bottom of the
eopper, and in it (the pipe) is fixed a tap to let on or cut off the
steam at discretion. The process of manufacture is the following:
When the steam is up, about two or three bushels of fish, principally
haddocks, are put in the copper, and the tap is turned to