[Report 1894] / Medical Officer of Health, Halifax R.D.C.

Halifax (England). Rural District Council.

Date:: 1894

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Report 1894] / Medical Officer of Health, Halifax R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

20/32 (page 18)

Cowsheds. 'I’wciily ciylit eowslicds, some of’tlioiii with milk stores acljoiiiiiiy, wei’e inspected, and, on tlie wliolo, were found satisfactory. The drainage of most of tliem was rural in character ; the air-space was limited ; the limewashing done on an average once a year ; the water supply generally good ; manure disposal was })urely an agricultural or economical question, from which sani- tary considerations were disdainfully excluded. All this notwithstanding those who had charo’c of the cowsheds we visited were fully alive to the health and well-being of their cattle, and it only needed a few hints, carefully chosen and adapted, to ensure a good deal of improve- ment being carried out. Unsound Food.— On Deceml)er 2Gth I was summoned to inspect a carcase of meat deposited in a private slaughterhouse at Hartshead, and I pronounced it unwholesome and unfit for the food of man, and had it seized and carried away in order be dealt with l)y a Justice of the Peace, who gave an order for its destruc- tion. The proprietor of the slaughterhouse said that he had had the carcase offered for sale to him when at the Huddei'sfield ^Market, but had refused to buy it; how- ever, on coming home the same evening he found it hung u]) in his slaughterhouse. Tlie police had obtained the name of the man who had offered it for sale, and the name of the man who had brought it ovei’ from Fixby, wdiere it had died —or been killed, to Hartshead ; 1 at once visited those persons, but could get no definite iii- foi’ination from them. Mr. Pell, a Veterinary Surgeon, who inspected the carcase early on the following morning confirmed my opinion, and suggested that it had died from parturient apo[)lexy.