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60
The Milk Clauses (Part viii.) failed to pass; but Part ix. in the Bill, Part viii. in the Act,
(" Ice Creams") became law, and came into operation on the 1st November, 1902. It provides
that—
Any person, being a manufacturer of, or merchant or dealer in, ice creams or other
similar commodity, who, within the County—
(a) Causes or permits ice creams, or any similar commodity, to be manufactured,
sold, or stored in any cellar, shed, or room, in which there is any inlet or opening to a
drain, or which is used as a living room or sleeping room;
(b) In the manufacture, sale, or storage of any such commodity, does any act or
thing likely to expose such commodity to infection or contamination, or omits to take
any proper precaution for the due protection of such commodity from infection or contamination
; or
(c) Omits, on the outbreak of any infectious disease amongst the persons employed
in his business, or living or working in, on, or about the premises in, or on, any part of
which any such commodity as aforesaid is manufactured, sold, or stored, to give notice
thereof forthwith to the Medical Officer of the Sanitary District in which such business is
carried on, or such premises are situate—
shall be liable for every such offence, on conviction by a Court of Summary Jurisdiction, to a
penalty not exceeding Forty Shillings.
The above provisions apply to all persons being manufacturers of, or merchants, or dealers
in, ice creams, or other similar commodity.
Special provisions are made with respect to street sellers of the dainty, as follows :—
Every itinerant vendor of any such commodity as aforesaid shall, if not himself the
manufacturer thereof, exhibit in a legible manner, on a conspicuous part of his barrow, a notice
stating the name and address of the person from whom he obtains such commodity, and if
such vendor is himself the manufacturer of such commodity, he shall in the same manner
exhibit his own name and address. Every such itinerant vendor who shall fail to comply
with the provisions of this Section shall be liable for each offence, on conviction as aforesaid,
to a penalty not exceeding Forty Shillings.
The Notice given by the County Council states, that—
Proceedings for the recovery of the penalties shall be instituted by the Sanitary Authority
for the District in which the offence was committed, or of the District to the Medical
Officer of which such notification as aforesaid ought to have been made, or in which such
itinerant vendor as aforesaid shall offer any such commodity as aforesaid for sale, as the case
may be.
The Sanitary Inspectors, before the Act came into operation, inspected the premises of confectioners,
etc., where " ice creams " are manufactured ; and with the Chief Inspector I visited the
places in the Royal Borough where the commodity is prepared for sale by (or to) itinerant vendors,
in order to secure such improved conditions as were necessary for compliance with the requirements
of the new legislation.
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
Reference has already been made (p. 9) to the high rate of infantile mortality in the
borough, as measured by the proportion of deaths under one year of age to births registered.
The rate in England and Wales in 1901, was 151 to 1,000 births registered, which is 3 per
1,000 below the mean proportion in the ten years 1891-1900.
In the thirty-three great towns, containing an estimated population of nearly 11½ million
persons, the proportion averaged 168 per 1,000, being lower than the proportion during the
preceding ten years by 4 per 1,000. " The towns with the lowest rates of infantile mortality
were Halifax 127 per 1,000, Bristol 131, Huddersfield 132, and Croydon 141. The towns with
the highest rates were Sheffield 201 per 1,000, Salford 204, Preston 216, and Burnley 226."
(Registrar-General's Annual Summary for 1901.)
In the Metropolis the rate was 149 per 1,000, as compared with an average proportion of
160 per 1,000 in the ten preceding years. The range in the different districts was considerable,
the highest rates having been recorded in Bermondsey, 169 per 1,000, the City of London 175,
and Shoreditch 197. Hampstead stood lowest in the list, with a proportion of 104 per 1,000
births; St. Marylebone* next, with a proportion of 107, and Stoke Newington next, with one of
115 per 1,000 births.
* The Registrar-General states that " the low infantile mortality in St. Marylebone is partly due to an excess of births
owing to the presence of a lying-in hospital."