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71
Overcrowding.
Information contained in many of the annual reports of medical officers of health shows the
number of instances in which overcrowding was found, the number in which this overcrowding was
abated, and in respect of a few districts, the number of cases in which proceedings before the magistrate
were instituted on account of overcrowding. The following table has been prepared from the information
supplied:—

Factory and Workshop Act, 1901.
Under the provisions of Section 132 of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, the medical officer
of health of every district is required to report, in his annual report, specifically on the administration of
this Act in workshops and workplaces, and to send a copy of his annual report, or so much of it as
deals with this subject, to the Secretary of State.
A form of table has been prepared for the guidance and convenience of medical officers of health
in the preparation of this part of their report and forwarded to them by the Local Government Board,
at the request of the Secretary of State. A note on the table points out that "it is not intended to
supersede the fuller statement which is desirable in the text of the report, but to provide for uniformity
in the presentation of such particulars as lend themselves to statistical treatment." From the tables
thus supplied by the medical officers of health of the London districts the summary table shown on
pages 72 and 73, has been prepared.
The reports for the year 1901 show development of the administration under the Factory and
Workshop Act. The requirement that the medical officer of health should report specifically on this
administration and the provision of tables for statistical statement no doubt tends to emphasise the
importance of the sanitary supervision of places where work is carried on and to stimulate the efforts
of sanitary authorities to cope with it.
The records show that at the end of 1904, 34,488 workshops in London were under the supervision
of the local authorities, and that 18,922 conditions needing remedy were dealt with, 17,959 under
the Public Health (London) Act, and 963 under the Factory and Workshop Act. Of the various premises
subject to the latter Act, 84,600 inspections were made, many of them, as will be seen by
the table, being inspections of home workers' premises and hence the Act has in addition
to factories and workshops ensured the inspection of many dwelling houses, the number of
outworkers on the lists supplied to the sanitary authorities being 34,579. The improvement that has
been effected is commented on in some of the reports and it is further stated that employers are
found to co-operate willingly with the local authorities in the remedy of faulty conditions. Conditions
of overcrowding which were found are stated to be fewer, although, as the table shows, overcrowding
was from time to time met with in most of the districts. In Wandsworth, the distribution
among the employees of workroom cards has been found to have a useful effect in this matter. In respect
of ventilation it is pointed out that the objection of the employees to the use of means of ventilation is
often the greatest difficulty. Inasmuch as this objection is largely dependent on habit and custom
it may be expected that this difficulty will gradually decrease. In connection with this subject it may be
mentioned that Dr. Newman gives the results of the estimation by Dr. Haldane's apparatus of the
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