Extracts from the annual report of the medical officer of the local government board for 1891-92. On manure nuisances.

  • Thorne, R. Thorne.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Extracts from the annual report of the medical officer of the local government board for 1891-92. On manure nuisances. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    “ 100 yards distant from houses) and carted through the town. The “ major part of the manure business, however, is carried on at Oare “ Creek, a part of the Faversham port, about a mile from the town “ itself. We have some local restrictions on this business which also “ aPply to the business which is done in various forms of fish manure “ which are also carted through the town. “ 1st- All such carriage of manure must take place before 8 a.m.” [In the present byelaws this rule has been dropped, but Dr. Boswell tells me that as a matter of fact the farmers adhere to the old practice. He says that no difficulty has been found in removing 60 tons or so of manure in two mornings before 8.] “ 2nd. Where the manure is of an offensive character it is to be covered with tarpaulins. “ 3rd. All such manure must be removed from the quay within 48 hours of its debarkation. “ 4th. Any droppings in the street from the carts carrying such manures are to be cleared up at once by the men attending the carts. “ I have been inclined,” he says, “ to attribute several cases of “ diarrhoea—but after nil only a very few—to the carriage of this “ manure, but I am sure that since the introduction of rules for covering “ the manure waggons, the nuisance has been much diminished. “ Formerly one could smell the trail of the vanished cart for hours “ after its passage.” “ The men who work in the manure do not seem to suffer in health “ at all. The dwellings situated around the quay where the manure is “ landed, are occupied by the very lowest of our social strata, and among “ them illness of all sorts is more prevalent than among their more “ cleanly neighbours. Infantile diarrhoea is perhaps more common than “ is desirable, but there were only two deaths from diarrhoea—one “ infantile—in the whole town during 1891. Sore throat and diphtheria “ are not more common in the neighbourhood of the quay than else- “ where ; diphtheria certainly is more prevalent in quite another district “ of the town. “ On the whole,” Dr. Boswell says, “I should say that under restric- “ tions the nuisance of this trade may be considei'ablv reduced, but this “ is chiefly an agricultural district, and it has been a matter of some “ trouble to get an assembly popularly elected to interfere at all. It is “ perhaps possible that we are more able than other authorities to “ exercise pressure, as there is an alternative, but more inconvenient, “ quay at Oare, and the question of London manure is so constantly “ discussed that consignees, feeling their tenure precarious, are very “ manageable and conciliatory. “ With reference to byelaws, I am doubtful whether they do not « tend to restrict rather than to enlarge the powers of the sanitary “ authority. The labelling of any unsatisfactory thing or con- “ dition of things as a nuisance and injurious to health seems to me “ practically to erect the sanitary authority into an absolute autocracy. “ Of late years I have never met with any tendency to question the “ right of the authority to do what seemed best in their eyes, merely “ because it was necessary and apart from all reference to byelaws.” Ormskirk Ormskirk Rural District.—The following is from a report made by Eurai District. me 0n the sanitary condition of the Ormskirk Rural District, Lancashire :— _ . “ The soil, which is very fertile, is mostly cultivated in small holdings as market gardens ; the great towns ol Lancashire, to which