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sugar, a stick of vanilla being employed for flavouring. To freeze the custard prepared from these
materials, a block of ice costing 4d. or 5d. was required. In May last, a vendor in St-Martin's-in-theFields,
was paying 2s. a cwt. for the block ice which he used ; he required about 2 cwt. to freeze his
daily quantity, 20 quarts, of " ice-cream." In Deptford 2s. 6d. a cwt. was being paid for ice at about
the same time of year. The ice is obtained, as a rule, from some local depot, at which large quantities
are stored. The proprietor of one of these depots informed me that in hot weather he was in the
habit of disposing of 20 tons of block ice per diem. In cold weather " rough ice " from canals is
sometimes stored. In 1895, the medical officer of health of Poplar wrote, " It seems to be a practice
with ice-cream vendors to collect ice from docks, canals and ditches for freezing purposes, but it has
transpired that ice forms an ingredient of what is known as "water ice, which is also sold in
the streets." The medical officer of health of Paddington, who made inquiry also into this matter,
writes, " It appears that no ice enters into the composition of ice-cream, and that it is used solely as
a freezing mixture with salt. The vessels in which the cream is kept are of sheet metal, with lids
that fit as closely as they can be made to do. In making " water ices," rough ice is sometimes used,
but such ice much be of the cleanest description, or else the ice is too uninviting to be sold."
In company with Dr. Glaister, the medical officer of health, and Mr. Green, one of the sanitary
inspectors of Clerkenwell, to whom my thanks are due for their kindness in making the necessary
arrangements in connection with our expedition, I paid a visit to the Italian quarter in the early
morning on July 16th, in order to have an opportunity of seeing the Italians at work during the
height of their season. On our arrival shortly before 4 a.m., we found that at this hour no one was
stirring. Shortly before half-past four, however, men with barrows began to make their way towards
an ice depot near which we stood, and blocks of ice were soon being conveyed from the depot to the
numerous points in the district at which the freezing process was now to begin.
An Italian, who was cleansing his freezer, showed us at our request the position in which his
" custard " had been stored overnight. The mixture had been placed in a bedroom occupied by two
persons, and the room was close and stuffy. A sample of this custard (sample 1, Dr. Klein's report,
vide Appendix) was taken for bacteriological examination.
We then visited an ill-ventilated court, containing four two-storey cottages, and found nine
men and women hard at work there freezing. We learnt that in one of the cottages the custard had
been stored overnight in a cupboard in a room in which a boy had slept, and a sample of this custard
was taken (sample 2 in Dr. Klein's report). In another court a third sample (sample 3 in Dr.
Klein's report) was taken from a vessel which had stood all night in the open air.
The utensils in all instances were, it should be noted, being carefully cleansed before use,
and we found that the material left over from the preceding day was being thrown down the
drain. On calling attention to this it was explained by one of the Italians that he dare not
run the risk of impairing the flavour of the custard now to be frozen by making use of custard
frozen on the preceding day. In the matter of cleanliness the Italians have, as a rule, a far higher
standard than that which obtains among English people of a similar class, and although I have seen dirty
milk measures from time to time upon registered milk purveyors' premises in various parts of London,
I have not hitherto noted any case in which exception could be taken to the conditions of the utensils
used by the Italians at the premises visited in the Italian quarter. Moreover, when the question was
asked, "How are the cans cleaned?" a towel, the condition of which was as a rule quite above criticism*
was invariably produced. Again, it was particularly noteworthy that washing or drying operations were
almost always found to be in progress in the houses occupied by Italians. Further, in the beds examined,
the linen was found remarkably clean, and evidence of vermin was only exceptionally obtainable, far
more exceptionally than is the case in tenements of a somewhat similar class not occupied by ice-cream
vendors.
It has been asserted that ice creams are mixed in the same saucepans and cauldrons in which
the Italians scald and wash their dirty linen, and statements still more sensational have even been made.
The possibility cannot, of course, be absolutely denied. I can only say that all those whom I have met,
who have had actual experience of the Italians, are altogether sceptical as to the correctness of charges
of this kind, and are quite agreed, on the other hand, in giving the ice-cream men, speaking on the
whole, an exceedingly good character in all that pertains to cleanliness.
Difficulty is no doubt experienced in connection with the glasses in which ice-cream is served
by itinerant vendors. The Italians always assert that the water used for washing-up is changed from
time to time during the day; the vendor, it is said, in selecting his " pitch," has regard to
the possibility of obtaining water for this purpose. Some of the samples of washing-up water which
have been analysed, contain, as has been shown on more than one occasion, large numbers of bacteria;
on the other hand, I have been assured by an officer who devoted some attention to the subject, that
he found it impossible to secure a sample of " really dirty water" for the purposes of analysis.
From what has been said, it will be seen that the Italian custard has this great point in its
favour, that the material contained in it has been boiled for twenty minutes or half-an-honr, has been
in fact practically sterilised ; on the other hand, after sterilisation the mixture may have been stored
under conditions in which there was liability of contamination, and in particular the chances of its
having been exposed to the atmosphere of a crowded living and sleeping room are, it would appear,
considerable.
The bacteriological examination of samples of ice-cream.—Some attention has been devoted of
late years to the bacteriology of ice-cream. In 1894 Mr. Harris, the medical officer of health of
Islington, reported to the vestry on the subject of ice-creams, and as the result of his representations,
three samples of ices and three samples of the water in which the glasses used in serving them were
washed, were submitted to Dr. Klein. Mr. Harris, in presenting Dr. Klein's report, referred to "the
dirty conditions under which the ice-creams are manufactured, to the dirt of the vessels and the
* Of course cleanliness as ordinarily understood, not bacteriological cleanliness, is here in question.