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46
Medical Officers of Health Annual Report.
Unsound Food.
The following is a list of articles of food
destroyed, being found unsound and unfit for food;—1 box
of eels, 1 box of herrings, 1 trunk of herrings, 1 trunk of
cod, boxes of skate, 6 boxes of pears, and 1 box of
melons.
Underground
Rooms.
The provisions of the 1891 Act as 1o this
natter appear to me very unsatisfactory. They
only apply to rooms separately oocupied. In very many
instances in certain parts of the District basement rooms
are used for living and sleeping in, but in only 9
instances was there no other room occupied by the same
tenant. Often only one room above ground goes with
the basement tenancy, but that is sufficient to prevent the
application of the section of the Act. It is, of course, just
as bad for the poor people to sleep, some of them, in an
underground room, if they have another room above ground
as if they have none. The number separately occupied
decreases year by year. Those so occupied were regularly
inspected. Two of them do not comply in some small
detail with the Act, but as the essential points, lowering the
area level, &c., had been altered to my satisfaction a few
years previously, they have not been interfered with.
Workshops.
158 were inspected, and the following defects
were found and remedied:—8 dirty, 2 insufficiently ventilated,
4 overcrowded, 3 dilapidated paving, 16 had
insufficient water-closet accommodation. The Factory and
Workshop Act, 1895, came into force on the 1st January,
1896, and considerably affected the relations of the Sanitary
Authority with workshops. The definition of overcrowding
is particularly valuable (250 cubic feet being
required for each worker, and 100 when overtime is
worked), and the provision of the notice in each room
giving the number of persons who may be employed in it.
The inclusion of laundries has, in this sub-district, added
greatly to the number of workshops.