[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bethnal Green].

  • St. Matthew (Bethnal Green, London, England). Parish Council.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bethnal Green]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: City of London, London Metropolitan Archives

    43/75 (page 15)
    15 nature of things, cow sheds are continually getting out of order, and require constant supervision. The regulation of Metropolitan cow sheds will probably be considerably modified at no distant date, as a Bill now before Parliament proposes to give power to the Metropolitan Board of Works to make bye-laws with respect to the condition and appliances of both cow sheds and dairies, and also with regard to the protection of milk against infection or contamination. The most common way in which milk becomes infected with the germs of deadly disease is by the addition to it of sewage-polluted water. It is not necessary that the water should have been added for the purpose of fraudulently increasing the bulk; it seems to be enough if the vessels in which the milk is received and stored are washed with foul water. The water supply is, therefore, a matter of most vital importance: it should be the best and purest that can be obtained. In London, the water supplied by the companies, though far from being absolutely pure, is nevertheless the best within reach at the present time, and to expose it to chances of further pollution, by storing it in butts and tanks, is both dangerous and unnecessary. Every dairy in the parish is now provided with a constant supply of water, and all butts and tanks should be immediately abolished. The water supply arrangements have, in many cases, been altered in accordance with my recommendation. Mr. James, of the Oval dairy, has fitted his three sheds with trough mangers formed of glazed earthenware, each of which is capable of being flushed by merely turning a tap. This arrangement, instead of being the exception, should obtain in every case. The prime cost of fitting this apparatus is, I believe, at the rate of one pound per cow. In some cases licenses are applied for, and have been granted, where no cows are kept. It is the intention of the Sanitary Committee, for the future, to oppose the granting of licenses, unless the premises are used for the bona-fide purpose of cow keeping. At the Licensing Sessions, held last November, the granting of licenses was opposed by direction of the Sanitary Committee to the persons mentioned below:— J. M. Richards, 381, Cambridge-road. W. Greenslade, 2, East-street. James Farrow, 479, Bethnal Green-road. Evan Jones, 100, Sclater-street.