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hide gin and gossip from the light of the sun, and to shield
sins worse than these of a night, for it is absurd to hide the fact
that one of the great causes of immorality is congregation. Huddle
men and women, boys and girls together, and the results are not very
distant. Corruption is not unknown even in religious communities,
but if there are not even moral bonds to hold and to bind, what can
be the result ? The top flat of a model lodging house must indeed
be a rare nursery for unhealthy children, for its height is a pretty
certain prevention against the child getting much out door exercise.
And what when fever breaks out ? All very well perhaps for a few
years when the buildings and the pipes are new, but what will these
places be when they get old ? The system is a bad one, and utterly
opposed to sound sanitary science. I am quite aware that I shall
be regarded as unpractical in my criticisms. I shall be told of the
value of ground and the necessity of rooms for the poor; but to
all this I reply, is the model lodging house the only thing to be
suggested ? Can no other remedy be found ? It is true the homes
of the poor are in many places bad—it is true great improvement
schemes necessitate large blocks being pulled down—but surely such
a scheme as the building small cottages for workmen a short distance
from London, and providing cheap trains for their carriage backwards
and forwards to and from their work, would be infinitely preferable
to so unwise a step as the erection of huge buildings, which are little
else than a mass of stalls for human beings. I mention this as one
alternative scheme, and one that commends itself to my mind, but
it is not the only one by any means. I am anxious in laying before
you my views on this subject, views I may say which influence me
not a little in my work as your officer, to show you how in my
opinion much of the popular work of the present day, is a work which
instead of aiding sanitary improvement is only tending in an
opposite direction, and should be opposed by those who have the
great cause of sanitary science at heart.
ADULTERATION ACT.
During the year from June, 1874 to 1875, 112 articles of food
were submitted to me for analysis by your Inspectors appointed
under the acts,