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A third point to be borne in mind is the absence of any special powers in respect to cleansing
and lime-whiting. I have not met, however, with any instances in which a sanitary authority's notice
to remedy such conditions had been disregarded, or the power to enforce it contested, by the occupier
of a restaurant or eating-house.
The bakehouse it may be observed is further protected by provisions—that "the cistern
supplying water to the bakehouse shall be distinct from the cistern supplying a water-closet," and
that " no drain or pipe carrying off faecal or sewage matter shall have an opening within the bakehouse."
The extension of powers of this kind to places in which food is prepared might prove useful
in particular instances. In some cases, however, it will be found that the underground cellar which
serves as the kitchen of a central London eating-house is of necessity the place in which the inspection
chamber of the house drain is constructed, and sometimes the ventilating pipe from such drain opens
into the kitchen.* Under such conditions it is manifest that the cellar is not a fit place for use as a
kitchen. As an instance I may refer to an eating-house which I visited with Dr. Allan, the
medical officer of health of the Strand district, in which the cellar beneath the shop, which
is used as a kitchen, is some six feet only in height, and ventilates into a small space (in front
of and directly communicating with it) situated under a grating in the pavement in front of
the shop. In the kitchen are a copper and a stove, and close to these is a manhole cover.
The " air inlet" of the drain is situated beneath the grating in the pavement, or as it may be
otherwise described, at the extreme front end of the kitchen. There is a trapped gully communicating
with the drain and situated at the back of the kitchen. For many years we were informed a pony
was brought down every night from the shop through a trap door, now disused, into this cellar, the
pony's stable being thus within the kitchen. The use of a place of this kind for the purposes of storing
and preparing food points to the need of the existence of power on the part of the sanitary authority
to proceed for the remedy of so objectionable a condition of things.
Fried fish and eel-pie shops—These establishments often present in the central parts of London,
where space is so expensive a luxury, defects of the kind already alluded to under the heading eatinghouses.
Dark, ill-ventilated cellars are not infrequently used for purposes of storage and for cutting up
the fish, and the position of the water-closet is a continually recurring difficulty. Whether in central
or in outlying parts of London, however, the manipulation of fish is specially apt to be attended, unless
particular care is taken, with nuisance. In instances in which fish are cut up on a bench placed
against the wall, it sometimes happens that the latter is found to be splashed with blood and filth
presenting a very unsightly appearance. In many cases, on the other hand this state of
things is obviated by the provision of surfaces of impervious material capable of being
washed down after use. The work of cementing walls or lining them with zinc and so forth
is so obviously necessary in the interests of cleanliness that occupiers of premises carry it
out as a rule if their attention is called to the desirability of doing so. In some few instances it might
perhaps be found useful to have a specific requirement dealing with a question of this kind to fall back
upon, in the event of the responsible person being unwilling to effect the necessary improvement, but
experience points to the conclusion that it is not so much an amendment of the law that is
needed as that there should be more systematic inspection of these fish shops. In a district in which
attention has been devoted to the matter I found that no difficulty had been experienced from lack of
statutory powers, and the inspector of the district was of opinion that no additional powers were
necessary. On the other hand, there is a tendency in some districts in which little or 110 supervision
over places of the kind now in question is exercised, to assume that because certain matters of detail are
not expressly set out in the Public Health Act and the by-laws made under it, no sort of control is
possible.
Butchers' and sausage makers' premises—These places are sometimes open to considerable objection,
particularly in crowded localities in central London, where cellars are apt to be used for storage of meat
or its conversion into sausage meat. Such cellars generally contain the water-closet and sometimes
such appliances as exist for the purpose of obtaining access to and ventilating the house drain. Some
of the provision shops in the Strand district which I visited with Dr. Allan afford examples of this
condition of things. In this district, too, striking evidence was forthcoming of the fact that extreme
poverty leads in some instances to the use as human food of what was not intended by the vendor
for human consumption. In one shop we found a large piece of horseflesh was on sale together
with butcher's meat and offal, and on inquiry we were informed that it was intended to be sold as
" cats-meat." The shopkeeper explained, however, that some of his customers bought five-pennyworth
(two pounds) at a time and that he was sure they could not afford to expend that sum upon cats,
moreover he added " they complain if it is underdone." This butcher further informed us that he
used to have a customer who came regularly once a week, evidently for the purpose of buying his
Sunday dinner, and that this man after purchasing a pound or two of horseflesh at the offal shop, proceeded
across the road for greens and potatoes, so that it was quite clear the horseflesh was intended
for human food. The shop in question in this instance communicated by a trap door with a very dirty
cellar, but it was stated that no meat was at any time stored in this cellar.
In one instance which I came across there was reason for suspecting that the shop in which
animal food was sold and stored was used at night as a sleeping room. In another instance it
transpired that meat was kept in a stable, and it appears that rabbits, fish, &c., which are sold by
costermongers in the streets are sometimes deposited at night time in the stable in which the donkey
or pony of the vendor is kept. One of the inspectors in St. Pancras took me to some stables in which
* In Paris even more objectionable conditions than these are said to exist. In a recent report of the
Society Frangaise d'Hygiene, published in the Journal d' Hygiene, reference is made to a report by M. Schaere in
which an underground kitchen is described as possessing a cesspool which, the street sewer being at a higher
level than the floor of the kitchen, has to be emptied by pumping. The smell from this cesspool, with which it is
incidentally noted a urinal communicates, is described as being most offensive.