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
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.
55/76 (page 47)
![An objectionable practice is common in country districts of piling manure in large heaps on waste ground by the roadsides, or in fields iust within the gate, and close to the highway, to await distribution iverthe land. Though unpleasant to the passers-by, this practice is not generally much complained of unless the manure is of a specially offensive character, or is.placed near to houses. The spreading of manure of an offensive nature over the land in the neighbourhood of houses may also occasion nuisance and be dangerous to health. The means of preventing nuisances of this class are simple, viz., to deposit the manure at a sufficient distance from public thoroughfares and houses, or to cover it with a layer of earth; and, after sprealing it on the land, to plough or dig it in without delay. Farmers, however, not themselves objecting to the smell of manure, are often unwilling to depart from their usual practice in deference lo what they consider the fastidiousness of their neighbours. The following byelaw of the Board’s Model Series II., under section 44, Public Health Act, 1875, aims at the prevention of certain graver nuisances of this kind in urban districts :— 10. Every person who, for any purpose of agriculture, shall deposit or cause to be deposited upon any lands or premises within the distance of—(usually 100 yards)—from any street, or from any building or premises used wholly or partly for human habitation, or as a school, or as a place of public worship, or of public resort or public assembly, or from any building or premises in or on which any person may be' employed in any manufacture, trade, or business, any filth which may have been removed from any cesspool, or any filth which may have been removed from any privy, or from any receptacle used in connexion with any privy, and which may not have been effectually deodorised, shall, with all reasonable despatch, cause such filth to be ploughed or dug into the ground or to be covered with a sufficient layer of earth, ashes, or other suitable substance, or shall adopt such other precautions as may be reasonably necessary to prevent the emission of noxious or offensive effluvia from such filth. This byelaw only applies to human foccal matter, and is therefore of no avail for the prevention of nuisances from London manure. If legal considerations permitted I think that it might reasonably and usefully be extended to include certain other specially offensive and dangerous classes of material, such as fish refuse, slaughter-house offal, and other dead animal matters. I understand, however, that such matters are excluded from this and the other byelaws of this series in view of the terms of section 44. This empowers an urban authority to “ make byelaws for the prevention of nuisances arising from snow, “ filth, dust, ashes, and rubbish, and for the prevention of the keeping “ of animals on any premises so as to be injurious to health.” ])eud animal matter has not been considered to be included in these words ; as I learn from the legal department that the Board have taken the view that the word “ filth ” means foccal matter, human or animal. Tims byelaws under this section, so far as they apply to London manure, do ■so in virtue of the comparatively inoffensive, and not of the most noxious, of its constituents. The scope of the byelaws which may be made under section 26 (1) of the Public Health Acts Amendment Act, 189Q, is wider in so far as it includes “any foccal or offensive or noxious matter or liquid but the objects for which byelaws may be made are limited to (a) pre- scribing the times for the removal through the streets of such matter or liquid ; (b) for providing that the vessel, &c. used for carrying them flliall be properly constructed, and covered so as to prevent the escape of such matter or liquid; and (c) for compelling the cleansiim of any place on which such matter or liquid may have been dropped during](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24400993_0055.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
