View report page

2
nuisance, but concurrently with the extension of its appeal to class after class rising in the social
scale, improvements have been gradually introduced, and in many respects the trade has been
transformed from what it was in the early days in London.
The cotton-seed oil now used in fish frying is undoubtedly of better quality than that
employed at first, and in many instances it is superseding dripping, which, however, is still the
mainstay in certain localities. Moreover, improved forms of stove have come into use, and, on
their own initiative, or under pressure from the Sanitary Authorities, fryers of fish have in several
instances adopted methods designed to minimise nuisance caused by escape of offensive vapours
into the outer air.
Dr. Ballard, writing in 1876, says:—"It is a petty trade, but, nevertheless, is a source of
considerable nuisance in some neighbourhoods, the offensive smell of the oil boiling and fish frying
spreading often, not only through the whole length of the street where the shop is situated, but
sometimes into adjoining streets also. When the shop is situated in a street occupied by poor
persons of the class who purchase such food, complaints of the smell are rarely, if ever, made;
but passengers are annoyed by it, and so also are the tenants of houses of the better class
who chance to reside in the neighbourhood. For it is not only in poor streets that such shops
are to be found. There is, I believe, scarcely a health officer in London who has not at some
time been called upon by the Authority under which he acts to advise as to an appropriate
remedy for this nuisance. The difficulty in dealing with it lies in this, that the pan, or fixed
shallow iron vessel in which the fish is fried by a fire beneath, must be always open to view, and to
allow of the necessary manipulation. The ordinary remedy suggested and adopted in a great
many places has been the provision of a hopper above the pan, which hopper is intended to catch
the fumes as they arise, and to convey them by an opening above into some adjoining chimney.
"But for various reasons the remedy has not proved always very effectual; the faultiness
partly consisting in the defective draught of the chimney, partly upon the hopper not being brought
low enough or far enough forward over and in front of. the pan, and partly depending on the fact
that, the process being conducted in the open shop, the wind entering the shop, and draughts
of air, interfere with the due operation of the hopper. A more effectual arrangement would be to
conduct the operation in a closed outhouse, or other place where draughts of air could not so
interfere, to bring the hopper well down and forward, and to close in the sides, having only the front
part of the pan open for observation and necessary manipulation. The chimney of the fire should
be so constructed as to obtain a good upward draught, and should be carried up above the roofs of
adjoining houses."
The Council's inspectors have visited 1,057 premises, this number representing more
than two-thirds of the total number of fried fish shops in London. Their inquiries show that the
business of frying fish for sale, as ordinarily carried on, needs to be considered from two points of
view. In the first place, the frying itself, unless it is conducted with due precautions,
involves escape of vapour and offence to passers by, and it is the nuisance so caused which
is the occasion of the instruction under which I am now reporting. In the second place,
the gutting and cleansing of the fish and the methods adopted for dealing with offal and refuse
need to be considered. In the course of carrying on these operations, effluvium nuisance is also apt
to arise; but the point of main importance here would appear to be the need of safeguarding
the reasonable cleanliness of an article of food. A close study of the conditions under which the
trade is at present carried on inevitably leads to the conclusion that the health of the population
of London is jeopardised to a far greater extent by risk of contamination of the fish itself than
it is by the escape of offensive vapours, although the latter are the source of the complaints
ordinarily made by the public concerning premises upon which fish are fried.
It is deserving of mention, inasmuch as the sale of fried fish is commonly associated with that
of "chip potatoes," that the potatoes are not as a rule peeled, and, generally speaking, less care is
exercised in regard to excluding diseased potatoes than appears to be desirable.
A question of very great importance arises in connection with the inspections made by the
Council's officers. At certain times of the year, and more particularly from April to July, large
quantities of small and immature plaice are brought to market. These fish, for some reason or
other, are specially apt to be found in a state of decomposition on arrival at the retailer's premises.
It may be that immaturity, or the source from which the plaice are obtained, favours this; or, again,
less care may be exercised with reference to fish which are, no doubt, looked upon as only a little
distance removed from offal. The larger fish, it may be noted, are often gutted immediately upon
being caught to preserve them from decomposition ; but the gutting of these small fish is said not
to be a practicable undertaking, and it is certainly not, as a rule, carried out prior to the fish
reaching the retail vendor. The marketing of undersized fish seems to have been a burning
question for a long time past, for, in the Guildhall Library, there is an ancient petition showing the
case of the fishmongers in and about the City of London as to a Bill brought before Parliament
concerning Billingsgate. This document contains reference to the "Horselydown and Harwich
fishermen, the promoters of the now Bill, who have set up a new way of dealing, and buy fish
caught by others, ofttimes unseasonable and unsizable, not fit to be sold."
Question has from time to time been raised in Parliament as to the expediency of adopting
measures for the prohibition of the capture, landing, or sale of fish under a certain size, but the
matter has only been considered from the point of view of protecting the young fish, in order that
the continuance of a supply of fish may not be jeopardised. The subject has, however, a public
health aspect also. Small fish in a decomposing condition have on more than one occasion been