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235
tenements, insufficient cooking apparatus, and general domestic
insanitation.
The above conditions are concerned broadly with housing accommodation
and town life which obviously exerts primary
influence upon health. But there are other matters also which
directly affect the physical life of the people.
(4) There are Conditions of Employment. Finsbury is an
industrial Borough, upwards of 70 per cent, of the people being
employed in industrial work. The occupations which engage the
largest number of persons in Finsbury are—(a) conveyance of men
and goods; (6) printing; (c) the making of wearing apparel;
(d) servants, porters and charwomen; and (e) work in food, tobacco
and at restaurants. These five lines of occupation employ upwards
of 28,000 persons, resident in the Borough, and each occupation
has its own perils to health and life. In some it is exposure and
accident, in others it is sedentary employment. Only second to
this latter influence comes the strain and resulting fatigue of "piece
work," frequently alternating with unemployment. A somewhat
exceptional proportion of the occupation in which women and girls
in Finsbury are engaged (wearing apparel, book-binding, linenironers,
&c.), is carried on under this condition, and I do not doubt
that it exerts considerable influence on the health of persons
physically weak or unfit. Tt should not be forgotten that the
occupied population of the Borough is more than doubled, and
perhaps trebled, during the day.
(5) There are also certain conditions arising from the habits and
customs of the people, which, on the whole, are exerting an unfavourable
influence. Two such conditions may be mentioned as
illustrations, namely, thriftlessness and alcoholism. The former
reveals itself not only in a failure to save but much more in a
failure to expend wisely and to the best advantage; the latter is I
am informed, prevalent among women. It appears that a good
many women habitually pawn their belongings on Monday, spend
part of the money so obtained in the public-house, and redeem the
articles pledged on Saturday, thus incurring an unnecessary expenditure
for interest, as well as spending hard-earned money