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Lewisham.—There were 225 inspections of workshops ; the conditions found are not shown
in the annual report separately from those found on other premises in the borough. Ninety bakehouses
were visited. There were 27 underground bakehouses in Lewisham. Requirements with
which underground bakehouses must comply were adopted by the Borough Council. A male
inspector was especially employed on these duties during a portion of the year only.
Woolwich.—There were 166 workshops under inspection, and 496 visits were paid by the
inspectors. Sanitary defects in workshops were remedied. These included 19 cases of
overcrowding, 14 of want of ventilation, 7 of insufficient water-closet accommodation, and 28 of
dirty conditions. There were 71 bakehouses in the borough, of which 34 were underground.
AVith respect to the latter, a schedule of minimum requirements was adopted by the Borough
Council. The kitchens of several restaurants were inspected and insanitary conditions remedied.
The names and addresses of 147 out-workers resident in the borough were received and their
premises inspected. Nuisances were found and remedied on 40 premises. Information as to
out-workers resident in other districts was communicated to the authorities concerned, and in two
instances information of the omission to exhibit an abstract of the Act was sent to H.M. Factory
Inspector. The above duties devolve especially on two inspectors who have other general duties.
Inspection of Food, etc.
Ice creams.
In referring to the subject of enteric fever on page 61 account is given of cases of this
disease which were associated with the consumption of ice cream. In 1892 Dr. George Turner
inquired, on behalf of the London County Council, into an outbreak of enteric fever in Southeast
London, which he found to be due to the consumption of ice cream purchased from Italian
vendors in the streets, who manufactured this article in Mill-lane, Deptford, where the Council
has since carried out an improvement scheme on account of the insanitary condition of this area.
Attention having been thus directed to this subject, other outbreaks of this disease in other
parts of the country have been found to be due to a similar cause. Dr. Hamer, at a later
date, inquired into the conditions under which ice cream was manufactured in London, and in
1902 the Council included in their General Powers Bill of that year the following provisions
empowering London sanitary authorities to control the conditions under which this commodity
is manufactured. These provisions are—
Any person being a manufacturer of or merchant or dealer in ice creams or other similar commodity
who within the County—
(a) Causes or permits ice creams or any similar commodity to bo manufactured, sold, or stored
in any cellar, shed, or room in which there is any inlet or opening to a drain, or which is used as
a living room or sleeping room ;
(b) In the manufacture, sale, or storage of any such commodity does any act or thing likely to
expose such commodity to infection or contamination, or omits to take any proper precaution for
the due protection of such commodity from infection or contamination ; or
(c) Omits on the outbreak of any infectious disease amongst the persons employed in his
business, or living or working in, on, or about the premises, in or on any part of which any such
commodity as aforesaid is manufactured, sold, or stored, to give notice thereof forthwith to the
medical officer of the sanitary district in which such business is carried on or such premises are
situate ;
shall be liable for every such offence on conviction in a court of summary jurisdiction to a penalty not
exceeding forty shillings. Every itinerant vendor of any such commodity as aforesaid shall, if not
himself the manufacturer thereof, exhibit in a legible manner on a conspicuous part of his barrow a
notice, stating the name and address of the person from whom he obtains such commodity, and if
such vendor is himself the manufacturer of such commodity he shall in the same manner exhibit his
own name and address. Every such itinerant vendor who shall fail to comply with the provisions of
this section, shall be liable for each offence on conviction as aforesaid to a. penalty not exceeding
forty shillings.
These provisions came into force in November, 1902.
The County Council prepared a translation of these provisions into Italian for the use cf
sanitary authorities and the persons concerned. This translation was largely used.
The annual report of the medical officer of health of the City contains an account of the
illness, in July, of two telegraph boys, which was brought to his knowledge by the medical officer
of the General Post Office, and which was believed to be due to the eating of ice creams bought
at an Italian shop in Aldersgate-street. The symptoms complained of were severe pains in the
epigastrium, nausea, headache, and depression. Samples of ice cream purchased in the neighbourhood
were submitted bv Dr. Collingridge to Dr. Klein for bacteriological examination, and
found to be poisonous, and when injected under the skin of guinea pigs caused the death of the
animals. Other cases of illness among telegraph boys followed, also attributed to the eating
of ice creams, and other samples of ice cream were, at the instance of Dr. Collingridge, examined
by Dr. Klein. Of 23 samples thus examined 12 were found to contain virulent bacteria, and in
some cases, to produce the death of guinea pigs when injected beneath the skin of those animals.
In respect of one sample, Dr. Klein stated that the microbes were non-sporing, and that, therefore,
they appear to have obtained an entrance to the material after it had been boiled.
The ice cream which was poisonous had generally been manufactured on insanitary premises, and
the length of the period of exposure of the ice cream to these conditions appeared to be important
in this connection. The Corporation issued a notice to ice cream makers pointing out the precautions
which should be taken to prevent contamination, one of which was that when, in the
process of manufacture, the materials are boiled, freezing must take place immediately afterwards,
and another, that ice cream should not be kept for a longer period than 48 hours after
manufacture, and that if remaining then unsold must be destroyed.
Other reference to the subject of the sale of ice cream is found in the report of the medical
officer of health of Finsbury, in whose district was manufactured some of the ice cream