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21
surrounded by circumstances conducive to its
health, is one of the most valuable articles of diet,
and is especially useful as a part of the diet of
children. In consequence of the universal demand
for this food, the practice of keeping cows in large
towns has grown up. The nuisances arising from
this practice are, that the cows are kept in close and
confined situations, where their excretions become a
source of disease and annoyance to those around
where they live, and the milk of the creatures thus
kept is liable to changes which render it injurious
to those who partake of it.
Several times during the past year, I was compelled
to notice the existence of disease in the neighbourhood
of the cow-houses in the Parish. In the
houses contiguous to the cow-house in New Street
diphtheria prevailed ; a whole family was attacked,
and two children speedily died. On two occasions
I have presented memorials from the inhabitants of
Marshall Street praying for the removal of the
cow-house in that street. Such is the nuisance
created in various parts of the Parish by the
existence of cow-houses, that now that people better
understand the danger of living near them, the
value of property has greatly deteriorated in their
neighbourhood.
The Legislature has been fully alive to the
danger of such places, and in the Amended
Metropolitan Act of 1862, will be found the following
section:—