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80
THE WORK OF THE LADY SANITARY INSPECTORS.
(Factory and Workshop Act, 1901.)
Subjoined will be found the report of the lady inspectors of workshops, workplaces, and
laundries where women are employed, and the report of the chief sanitary inspector, comprising
information which Section 132 requires to be set out in the annual report of the Medical Officer of
Health. In connexion with the first-named report, it may be mentioned that it was in Kensington
that the services of women were first enlisted in the work of sanitary administration. The seed
sown in 1893 has prospered, for already the Cities of London and Westminster and 20 of the
27 Metropolitan Boroughs have appointed women inspectors to the number of 34. It will be
remembered that the conference of delegates of the Borough Councils, convened by the County
Council, and held, in July, 1904, at the County Hall, on the Administration of the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891, passed an unanimous resolution expressive of the opinion "that female inspectors
should be employed in each borough."
In 1901, a new duty was undertaken by the lady inspectors—inspection of the kitchens of
restaurants and eating-houses, which may be. regarded as "workplaces," an expression not
defined in the Act. The results of the inspection were summarised in my first monthly report
for 1902, which came under the notice of the Public Health Committee of the County Council,
who, in January of that year, had been instructed to "consider and report as to the best means to
exercise periodical inspection of restaurants and eating-houses." The Committee expressed
the opinion that it would be advisable for the Council to send a copy of their report, and to
address a circular letter, to each of the Borough Councils (except Kensington), expressive of the
Council's hope that they would cause the kitchens of hotels and restaurants in their districts to be
inspected, and exercise their power under the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, for the removal
of any insanitary conditions that might be found. This was done, and now such kitchens, in most
of the districts, if not in all, are under supervision. The County Council, it may be mentioned, in
their General Powers Bill, 1904, made an unsuccessful effort to obtain increased powers for the
sanitary authorities in regard to places where food is stored or prepared for sale: such powers, we
may be sure, will, sooner or later, be granted.
In 1902, the workshops in the Borough having become well-ordered, and requiring less
frequent inspection, the Public Health Committee and the Council assented to my proposal to
employ a portion of the time of the lady inspectors on another duty, of not less importance than
those for the discharge of which they were primarily appointed—to wit, inquiries with respect to
cases of pulmonary phthisis (consumption). In 1905, moreover, the inspectors began systematically
to visit cases of measles and of whooping-cough; and in 1906 they made an enquiry with reference to
deaths from infantile summer diarrhoea. References to these several branches of their work will be
found at pages 22, 27, 29 and 52.
The report of the inspectors of their work under the Factory and Workshop Act, in 1906,
is as follows:—
"The number of workshops, etc., in the Royal Borough at which female labour is
employed, at the end of 1906, was 927: viz., 446 (mostly laundries) in North Kensington, and
481 (mostly dressmakers) in South Kensington. During the year, 102 new workshops were added
to the register, and 72 were removed therefrom; the net result being an increase of 35 registered
premises.

"The number of persons employed varies with the period of the year, being, of course,
greatest during the 'season': it exceeds 10,000.