LONDON COW-KEEPERS. 
405 
nutrition ; and pointed out how they may in this manner 
produce convulsions, and ultimately destroy life. I imagine 
that phosphorus, like many other poisons, acts upon the 
blood in the manner ascribed by Dr. Harley to strychnine, 
and thus in a similar way destroys the life of the animal.” — 
The Lancet . 
THE LONDON COW-KEEPERS. 
The days of the monstrous abuse which has so long infested 
London in the shape of filthy, nay, pestilential cow-sheds, 
are at last numbered. The evil had grown to such a magni- 
tude as to call for an active interference. The simple fact 
that treble premium is charged for insuring the cows in 
London dairies, may give an idea of the estimate formed by 
insurance companies — excellent authority — as to the greater 
risk of disease incurred by the bad management of the 
metropolitan dairymen. 
It is a notorious fact that the most beautiful milch cows 
are bought up for the metropolis, but the abodes of putridity 
to which they are doomed give rise to disease in nearly 70 
per cent, per annum, and in half the cases death is inevitable. 
Be it noted, moreover, that though a cow be extensively 
diseased, its milk finds its way into the bright itinerant milk- 
cans, the purveyors of our kitchen and breakfast tables ; and 
when at last the wretched carcase is unable to stand, a covered 
van conveys it to a slaughter-house — the half-way house to 
sausage-makers and cook-shops. 
The Association of Medical Officers of Health have taken 
the matter in hand, with a determination to put an end to a 
state of things alike offensive to humanity and the commonest 
principles of sanitary science. The cow-keepers of London 
have just formed themselves into an association, the practical 
effect of which will, we trust, be to accelerate the application 
of the remedy in the most practical manner. No fencing 
with the real question at issue can be tolerated ; the evil is a 
disgrace to this metropolis, and the sooner the cow-keepers 
set about correcting it in earnest, by draining and ventilating 
their premises, the greater reason will they have to claim 
official consideration for their interests and good intentions. 
We have reason to know, on good authority, that the intro- 
duction of a Bill into the House of Commons to prohibit the 
keeping of milk cows in London is contemplated by one of 
the most influential members, and there can be no doubt it 
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