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XI
much less sulphur gas and the visibility is, of course, considerably improved.
The Public Health Committee was impressed with the need for estimating
the deleterious effects of sulphur on buildings and fabrics, etc., and is
proposing to instal an instrument for the measurement of these effects.
Coroner's Court and Mortuary.
A note is made of the further improvements which have been made
to the Court and Mortuary during the year.
Food and Drugs.
During the past two years a tendency to an increase of food adulteration
has been observed. This applies particularly to milk, where the percentage
of samples classified by the public analysts as of good quality
has fallen to 25 per cent.
A new feature is a note by the public analysts of their work, to be
found on page 105. It was thought that in view of the importance of
the work done by the analysts of the City it would be appropriate to
invite them to comment on it.
Notes on investigation of three cases of food poisoning are included.
Housing.
The detailed housing survey of the working class dwellings in the City,
to which reference was made in last year's report, continued throughout
the year. The subject of housing being of such importance receives
considerable comment in the body of the report. The housing programme
of the City Council is dealt with, and also the progress which has been
made in the matter of occupation of basement rooms. By the time this
report is published the overcrowding Bill will have become an Act of
Parliament, and it will be a source of some satisfaction to the City
Council to know that a great deal of the work required under this new
statute has already been accomplished in the housing survey which, at
the time of writing, has been completed. The objects of this survey are
set out in this report, and they included the assessment of overcrowding
together with measurement of rooms, etc., which are required under the
new Act. For the purpose of overcrowding, therefore, it will be necessary
only to survey the blocks of industrial tenements owned by the London
County Council, the Peabody Donation Fund, and other Housing Corporations.
None of these was included in the present housing survey.
Reference is also made to the new housing scheme of the Council
for the erection of 280 flats to be completed in 1936-7, and to the clearance
areas which have been declared and dealt with by the City Council during
the year.