View report page

12
on the footway of streets, outside the shops. Hare and rabbit skins are kept in shops and sheds,
usually being hung up to dry on racks or hooks. In one instance a coke tire was being used
to dry them. There is commonly a quantity of blood and connective tissue about the skin of
the head, which becomes decomposed, and in drying gives off an offensive smell, noticeable on the
premises and in several cases outside. Instances were found of storage places (including
basements) so full of rags that it was impossible to see the condition of the interior, and basements
were found to be difficult of access owing to the entrance being either through a small trap-door
in the floor of the shop or through staircases and passages filled with rags and lumber.
Rag-sorting.—Rag-sorting was carried on in 44 per cent. of the premises visited in groundfloor
and upper rooms, basements, sheds, and in covered or open yards. The sheds, in some cases,
were either unpaved or had defective paving, and usually there was found a heap of dirt from the
rags underneath the sorting screen, as well as other heaps of rag-sorting refuse—apparently the
result of accumulation for long periods.
Disposal of Rags, Bones, and Fat.—The greater part of the rags from retail shops are sold in
bales, sorted or unsorted, to wholesale dealers, and finally find their way into the hands of a few
very large wholesale dealers, chiefly in the East End and the Borough. Large quantities of these
rags are sorted in the warehouses, and are sent in large bales by rail, the cotton rags to paper
mills, and the woollen rags to shoddy mills in Yorkshire.
Fat and bones are collected more frequently than rags by tallow-melters and bone-boilers,
who chiefly carry on business within the County of London and at Stratford, and employ their
own vans for periodical collection. It may be remarked here that large quantities of fat which
might otherwise find their way into the marine stores, are collected by fat-melters and washcollectors,
and removed to the pig-feeding localities in the extra-Metropolitan areas. A few large
wholesale dealers send bones away by rail.
Removal of Fat and Bones from Shops.—With regard to the periodical removal of rags fat,
and bones from marine stores, the following information was obtained:—
Out of a total of 205 premises at which inquiry was made, it was found that in the case of
133 fat and bones were removed weekly or less often, and in 72 they were removed at shorter
intervals.
General Results of Inspectors Inquiry as to Condition of Premises.— The walls, ceilings,
and floors of the shops and storage places were frequently found to be dirty, the infrequency
of cleansing being due no doubt in large measure to the premises being constantly full
of rags, old furniture, and miscellaneous articles of all kinds. With regard to sheds and
yards, much of the offensive smell was due to unpaved or badly paved surfaces, to the
accumulation of dirt derived from the sorting of rags, to the stacks and heaps of uncleansed bottles,
jars, metal, and miscellaneous litter—these conditions rendering cleansing almost impracticable—to
the storage of fat and bones in wooden or uncovered receptacles and the storage of bones on
unpaved and uncovered portions of the yards. On some of the premises the tubs and sacks in
which fat and bones were stored were dirty, and gave off an offensive smell.
Special mention should be made of the foulness of dustmen's sortings and the dirty conditions
caused by their being stored and sorted. It seems desirable that, having once been removed by
the local authorities, these materials should not again be brought into the neighbourhood of
dwelling-houses, as was the case at many of the 36 premises on which dustmen's rags, &c., were
being dealt with.
In several instances in which the house rags were very dirty, the smell given oft' was extremely
offensive—a smell akin to that from dirty and overcrowded dwelling-rooms. In two instances the
basement rag stores had recently been flooded by the sewage from overcharged sewers. There
were numerous instances of offensive smell on the premises which arose from damp and dirty rags
in imperfectly paved sheds with leaky roofs.
Having regard to the defective structural conditions found, the large amount of material liable
to decomposition manipulated on the premises, the peculiar offensiveness of the dirty rags, the risk
of infection from them, and the extent to which tney favour the collection of vermin, the dirty
conditions existing on many premises, the large amount of foul materials from dust-bins dealt with,
and the extent to which, more particularly in hot weather, nuisance from these various causes is
experienced, I think it desirable that some further attempt should now be made to bring these
premises under special supervision.
Recommendations.—The business could, no doubt, be scheduled under Section 19 of the
Public Health (London) Act, 1891, but this, as I have pointed out already in the case of fried fish
shops, would be a cumbrous method of dealing with premises of which such a large number
exist in London. The plan of treating this trade as ejusdem generis with the offensive trades
has been adopted in Cheltenham and Southend-on-Sea; but it may be pointed out that the
procedure under the London Act differs in some respects from that under the General Public
Health Act of 1875, which is operative outside London, and these differences would render the
application of Section 19 in London more restrictive, and it might perhaps be argued oppressive,
than is the case under the less stringent section of the Public Health Act of 1875. It seems
to me, therefore, that the better course would be, as in the case of fried fish shops, to endeavour
to obtain power to make by-laws to control the conduct of any business in which refuse containing
animal and vegetable matter liable to decomposition is stored. In the definition of such business,
it would of course be desirable to include manipulation of materials such as fat, bones, rabbit-skins,
&c., and rags.