The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-08 00:00:00

THE CATTLE PLAGUE.

Mr. P
ekairman of the markets committee,
stated, in reply to Mr. Turner, that the cattle
plague bad again broken out in Laycock's Dairy,
in the neighbourhood of Barnsbury Park, where it
previously broke out. Every animal in the shed had
in consequence been ordered to be slaughtered, and
great pains had been taken to prevent the disease
spreading to the Metropolitan Cattle Market.

SANITARY PRECAUTIONS.

Dr. SAUNDERS, pursuant to notice, Moved the ap-
pointment of a special committee to inquire into
the sanitary condition of the dwellings of the poor
of the City of London, and the general precautions
adopted by the commissioners of sewers to remedy
the same duping the recent outbreak of cholera.
During the epidemic' Dr. Saunders was at the head
of a body of medical visitors spec;ally appointed by
the guardians of the City of London Union under
an order in council, and it was in consequence of
what had come under his observation, and of those
with whom he acted in that capacity, in the shape
of nuisances dangerous to the public health, that he
had felt it his duty to bring the subject under the
consideration of the Common Council.
The motion was seconded by Mr. RIGBY, who
animadverted upon the alleged neglect by the com-
missioners of sewers of the sanitary condition of a
house in which fever had appeared in a virulent
shape after their attention had been repeatedly
called to the matter. He cited the case of Holiday-
yard, the nuisances in which were called to the
notice of the commissioners, and said they sent as
their inspector the landlord of the property in the
yard, and he had to report upon the condition of
his own premises.
Mr. DE JERSEY, chairman of the commissioners of
sewers,opposcd the motion on the ground that it was
not desirable to enter on such an inquiry except in
a thoroughly comprehensive spirit ; that the caurt
had in this case no guarantee that it would be so
conducted ; and that, therefore, the expenditure
would be useless. He described the measures
adopted by the commissioners to arrest the epidemic
in the City, and showed how, with respect to the re-
moval of nuisances while the cholera was present,
their exertions had been thwarted by circumlocu-
tion and the neglect of the medical visitors of the
City of London Union, of whom Dr. Saunders was
one, to perform the duty imposed on them by the
Privy Council of reporting daily as to the existence
of nuisances-to the commissioners of sewers, on
whom the duty devolved of removing them. He
showed that during the visitation of cholera 12,213
houses in the City had been inspected by the sani-
tary officers of the commissioners, and 3,016 orders
made to remove nuisances, the excution of which
was carried out under the supervision of those offi-
cers. Ile gave instances of the circumlocution and
neglect to which he had referred, and complained,
as unjust and untrue, of a reckless statement in a
pamphlet, attributed to Dr. Saunders, in which the
writer said in effect that he ascribed all the short-
comings of the commissioners to "a culpable disre-
gard of all their duties."
Dr. MONDAY bore emphatic testimony to the
promptitude with which nuisances had been removed,
and under the authority of the Commissioners of
Sewers, while the epidemic prevailed.
Mr. PEDLER,who was, with Dr. Munday, a mem-
ber of a sanitary committee of nine, appointed ex-
pressly by the Commissioners in the emergency, re-
ferred to the assiduity and energy with which they
and the officers of the commission, especially Mr.
Haywood, the engineer and surveyor, acted on the
occasion, and to the success of their exertions in ar-
resting the disease.
Mr. Deputy FARRAR, while believing it was not
the intention of the mover of the resolution (Dr.
Saunders) to throw any imputation upon the com-
missioners or their sanitary committee, considered
this a squabble between two medical men, and
he believed that squabble would have gone on if
the pamphleteering to which it gave rise had been
continued at the expense of the ratepayers.
Dr. SAUNDERS explained that the complaints were
not directed against the Commissioners or their
sanitary committee, but his contention was that the

subordinate officers of the Commissioners were not
equal to the requirements of such an emergency..
He vindicated the purity of the motives of the four
medical men and himself, who were appointed dur-
ing the visitation of cholera. They and he acted, he
said, from a strict sense of duty on the occasion, in
exposing, in the public interest, nuisances which
came under their cognisance, rather than from a de-
sire to " make things pleasant." At the conclusion
of the discussion, which was conducted with an un-
usual amount of personality and acrimony, Dr.
Saunders wanted to withdraw his motion, but the
court peremptorily refused to allow him. On a divi-
sion it was negatived by a large majority, viz., 76
to 9.
The court then adjourned.

THE WATER SUPPLY AT BIRKENHEAD.—After
three years of disappointments the water committee of the
Birkenhead commissioners have at last bored down to 508
feet, at the Flaybrick-hill works, from which they now
obtain daily 17500,000 gallons of oplonclid water.