Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-17
BAN ON CHICKEN GOOPS
rHxsICIAH WOULD HAVE THEM
REHovxD on SEGREGATED.

III the health authorities believe. on one
hand. that special regulation Is not nee
essary to restrict the keeping OF chickens
in the crowded portions OF the District,
and. on the ether, that children should be
guarded from the evil effects OF foul air.
how do they expect to reconcile two sucf
seemingly opposite rulesr'
While this exact language was not used
by DIR. D. NJ Mcpherson of 1910 18th
street northwest. the quoted paragraph
does express the gist OF a strenuous COM
rlaint made by DR.. Mcpherson in letter
to the Commissioners today.
Commissioner West referred the matter
to the health officer for report and when
he was asked about IT this morning, DR..
Woodward intimated that he would prob
ably make reply very similar TO that con-
tanned in a letter written by him to DR..
Mcpherson on the same subject a few days
ago.
It seems that Dr. Mcpherson has made
repeated objections to the location of a
chicken house very near to his residence.
and he has argued that the Commissioners
the location and construction Of chicken
houses, just as the location and construc-
ton OF stables are. now controlled
s DE. McPherson'S letter Of today reviews
health office and goes into the subject fully.
It reads as follows:
=, DR.. McPherson's Letter.
tThe health officer in letter dated July
Z. 1906. says, in reply to suggestion made
by the writer. that he is pot satisfied that
a proper basis exists for the PRONUNCIATION
Of g regulation or the enactment of a law
to prevent the keeping of chickens on the
premises referred to by me: that there has
been no such frequent and continued COM
plant against keeping chickens as to indi-
cate that 1t Is a matter over which the
Commissioners of the District should seek
control.
He further said citizen has relief
through the civil courts and is therefore
able to guard his interests without calling
upon the government for more aid than 1t
has afforded,
from this view of the facts it must be
Inferred, thatzI alone. would be benefited by
AN ordinance regulating the location Of
chicken houses. = -'s-
my position Is this-that a chicken house
placed in juxtaposition to dwellings is a
nuisance and menace to health. It is not
a mere private nuisance which I wish con-
trolled. but a public one as WELL
'In the health officers recent published
advice to mothers in the care Of their
babies in hot weather he said: Children
suffer from the effects of foul air more
quickly than grown people,
Cause of Disease.
This will be conceded as true by all, and
we have demonstration of the possible
evil effects of stenches in my own home
where a baby developed a most serious en-
teritis in June. All hygienic conditions
were without fault but for the effiuvia
which penetrated the house from the two
chicken houses under my windows l must
however. seek by civil process a remedy
which should be afforded by health ordi-
nance.
..The death. yea. the health. of one child
Is of more value than the slight CONNER
cial advantage to a few people who keep
chickens in confined space, and nearer their
neighbors' houses than their own.
Sanitary regulations should not be the
outgrowth of community needs any more
than the individual needs. If insanitary
as to one individual it is insanitary as to
all and Should not require the complaint
of more than one. The knowledge of a
health officer in sanitary matters should
be sufficient alone to cause the promulga-
ton of health ordinance, and our health
officer knows that foul odors are detrimen-
tai to health, as he so states in his instruc-
tons heretofore quoted. He also must know
how offensive chicken house necessarily 49,
Compared to Stables.
'It has been pointed out in former letters
from me that stables are not nearly so Of
fensive or insanitary as chicken houses.
yet the location of same are restricted. If
stables are per Sc so Injurious as to re-
auire regulations, so much more so should
they be required as to chicken houses, on
account of the efiuvia arising therefrom
in spite of the best of care, not to men
ton the Growing of ROSTERS and the cack-
ling of hens, which annoy sick people and
those who have a right TO undisturbed
sleep
II suggest that an annual permit be re-
CURED to keep chickens, and that it should
not be issued without the consent of these
persons whose residences are within the
90 10
the houses or coops within which the chick
ems are kept"