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Act, is (in districts where Part III. of the Public Health Acts Amendment Act, 1900, is in
force) the enforcement of the requirement in section 22 of that Act as to the provision of
suitable and sufficient sanitary conveniences, and (elsewhere) the enforcement of section 38
of the Public Health Act, 1875."
I am not prepared to say it is desirable there should be a specific requirement to the effect
that each authority should notify to the other any defects which may be apparent, as recommended
by the Physical Deterioration Committee. It is not presumably intended, for instance,
that the one authority should communicate to the other, matter in which only the first authority
is concerned. There would no doubt be advantage in the two authorities being in touch with
one another in connection with the proposed remedy of defects which might conceivably be held to
concern both authorities.
With regard to the final proposal, I doubt the advisability of imposing upon the certifying
surgeon the duty of notifying defects brought to his notice, to the factory inspector or medical
officer of health. If he only hears of such defects at second hand the advantage of his acting
as intermediary is not apparent, and if he is to make examination as to the existence of defects he
would be merely acting in substitution of an officer upon whom this duty is already imposed.
(16) Workshops.
The Physical Deterioration Committee urge that the inspection and supervision of workshops,
as distinguished from factories, should be strengthened. On the question whether this duty
should be undertaken by the local authority or the Home Office, the Committee say they are
not in a position to make a definite recommendation. They call attention, however, to the
propriety of making employment of children and young persons in workshops dependent, as
it is in factories, on a medical certificate.
There is undoubtedly still need for strengthening supervision of workshops, though much has been
done in this direction in London in the last 12 or 14 years.
The Act of 1891 excluded workshops, as far as sanitary provisions are concerned, from the
operation of the Factory Acts and brought them under the Public Health Acts. I am not aware
of any grounds for concluding there would be advantage if the supervision of workshops were
taken from local authorities and transferred to a central department of government. The
Committee point out that while 376,278 children and young persons were examined in factories
in 1901, only 413 were examined in workshops, the former examinations being made as a matter of
routine, the latter only at the request of the occupier or in cases in which the Secretary of State
may make a special order. The extension of the certifying surgeon's inspection to workshops would,
as the Physical Deterioration Committee say, " be a formidable undertaking," but they are of
opinion that it "calls for the earnest consideration of the department concerned." Probably the
need of protecting children working near machinery has emphasised the importance of medical
inspection in the case of children working in factories.
(17) Alcoholism.
The Physical Deteriation Committee emphasise the need of " bringing home to men and
women the fatal effects of alcohol on physical efficiency" and of training teachers to give rational
instruction in the laws of health, including the demonstration of the physical evils caused by
drinking.
This recommendation has been referred by the Council to the Education and Public Health
Committees.
The Public Health Committee has had under consideration the desirableness of publishing a
statement (similar to that brought to the notice of the Physical Deterioration Committee) regarding
the ill effects which result from excessive indulgence in alcohol. The solicitor has, however,
advised that there was no power to spend money in the manner suggested, and the Committee
reported to the Council to this effect on 14th March last.
(21) Cooking-grates.
The Physical Deterioration Committee point out that " in tenement houses often only one room
in the whole house contains a grate of proper service for cooking, with the result that a large
number of tenements do not contain the requisite apparatus for the preparation of food."
The Committee will remember that it recently had before it a report by Dr. Young on " Houses
Adapted as Tenement Houses," in which this question was considered. I pointed out in connection
with Dr. Young's report that, as the result of inquiry made by the Council's inspectors, it was
found that—
" Of 739 tenements of one, two, three and four rooms, in a third of the tenements there
was no oven in which food could be baked, the fire-grate being the same as that provided
when the house was originally constructed, or of the same kind and not more adapted for
cooking purposes than an ordinary bedroom grate. This condition was found especially in
tenements of one room, more than half of which were so circumstanced ; in tenements of two
rooms about a quarter were without coal fire or gas ovens for cooking purposes, but in
tenements of three or four rooms an oven heated in one or other of these ways was always
found to be provided. In tenements of one room in which an oven was found, this oven was
almost always heated by a coal fire, in exceptional instances the oven was associated with a
gas stove, and in one or two instances the tenement had both. In tenements of two rooms
provided with an oven, in about 85 per cent. the oven was heated by the fire grate, in about