Even in the Strand District there were (1856)-- "Nuisances arising from various branches of industry, the slaughtering of sheep and calves in the back-yards, and even in the cellars and kitchens, and the keeping of cows in the basements under private dwelling-houses, conditions which continue to exist in the most crowded parts of this district, and should on no account be permitted in such a district:" whilst in Westminster "pig-keeping existed to a very considerable extent." In some of the outer parishes the "foetid emanations" caused in the process of brickmaking added to the general impurity of the air. There were many other local causes of impurity of the atmosphere, some even caused by the Sanitary Authorities themselves. Thus the more thorough scavenging and removal of the filth of streets and houses, vitally necessary as that was, resulted in the accumulation of great heaps of filth in crowded centres. Thus the Medical Officer of Health for Fulham reported that:-- "The collection of dust heaps, and dust contractors' depôts, constitute a most injurious and offensive nuisance--enormous quantities of animal and vegetable matter are heaped together, from which the most noxious effluvia constantly arise." And the Medical Officer of Health for Rotherhithe pointed out (1858) that:-- "It is little use causing our own dust to be carted away if Rotherhithe is to become the receptacle of all the ashes and offal of a large neighbouring parish (Bermondsey). On a piece of land near the Viaduct there stands an immense heap of house refuse, covering an acre of ground at least, and forming quite an artificial hillock, the level of the surface having been raised 12-14 feet. The bulk of the heap is composed of ashes with a due admixture of putrefying vegetable matter and fish." A little later he reports it as 1-1/2 acres in extent, averaging 15 feet high, in one place as high as 20 feet. How to deal with these noxious or offensive trades was felt by some of the Medical Officers of Health to be a great difficulty. "We have the health of the community on the one hand," wrote the Medical Officer of Health for Lambeth; "the great manufacturing interests on the other.... We have all a common right to an unpolluted atmosphere, and it is our bounden duty to withstand any encroachments on that right. The personal aggrandisement of the manufacturer must not be achieved by the spoliation of the property, the comforts, and the lives of his poorer neighbours.... "But the manufacturing interest is not a thing to be trifled with. Destroy the manufactures of Lambeth, and you starve its population. There are nuisances of more benefit than of injury to the community," and he rather deprecated "a crusade against those interests, the untrammelled prosecution of which has raised this country to its present proud pre-eminence." Some of the Medical Officers of Health expressed decided views on the subject (1857):--