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183
1899
factory. He bore very high recommendations from Dr. J. B. Russell,
for many years Medical Officer of Health of Glasgow, and now the
Head of the Medical Department of the Local Government Board
of Scotland, and from Mr. Peter Fife, F.R.S.E., so well known as
the Chief Inspector of the same city. The manner in which
he has performed his work here has fully justified the high esteem
in which he was held in Glasgow. His experience, too, has been
gained after nine years work, seven of which has been served in
Glasgow as an Inspector of Meat.
With a knowledge of his duties such as his, the Vestry had no
hesitation in appointing him, although he possessed no certificates
from an Examination Board (the only one then in existence being the
Sanitary Institute), especially as it was fully believed that he came
within the requirements of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891,
which enacts that "a Sanitary Inspector shall have been during
three consecutive years preceding the year 1895 a Sanitary Inspector
or an Inspector of Nuisances of a district of London or of an
Urban Sanitary District out of London, containing, according to
the last published census, a population of no less than 20,000
inhabitants."
Extraordinary to relate, however, the Local Government
Board declined to sanction the appointment, on the grounds that
"they are advised that the reference in the latter part of the Section
(i.e. Sec. 108 (2), (d) Public Health (London) Act, 1891), to Urban
Sanitary District, must be held to refer to an Urban Sanitary District
in England and Wales."
As there is nothing in the Act itself to uphold this contention,
inquiries made by myself elicited the fact that there are no "Urban"
but only "Local" Sanitary Districts in Scotland. Consequently
Glasgow can no longer be looked on as a place from which to draw
Sanitary Inspectors, although without doubt some of the finest
sanitary work in the kingdom is effected there.
At this time, as I have already stated, there was no Board of
Examiners whose certificates were approved by the Local Government
Board, other than the Sanitary Institute, in existence, and
consequently Inspector Young at once prepared for its examination,
so that he might become qualified for his position under the earlier