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9. This Act shall come into operation on the
SCHEDULE I.
This Act shall apply to the following classes of business, processes of trade, or
manufacture:—
The making, cleansing, washing, altering, Watch and Clock Making and Repairing,
ornamenting, finishing, and repairing of Fancy Jewellery work,
wearing apparel and any work incidental Laundries,
thereto, Typewriting,
Hair-work, Preparation of food for sale in Restaurants
Lace or Embroidery-making, and Coffee-houses,
Upholstery and Carpet making,
And other occupations incidental to any of the foregoing.
Perhaps the most interesting feature in the Bill is the recognition, for the first
time in health legislation, of the importance of natural light as being a condition
essential to health. The power of sunlight in destroying disease germs, or at least in
attenuating their virulence, is well known, and dearth of sunlight is one of the most
potent pre-disposing causes of phthisis. In the efforts which are being made to combat
this disease the insistence on a reasonable amount of daylight in work rooms would be
a powerful weapon.
REPORT ON SHELLFISH, OTHER THAN OYSTERS, IN RELATION
TO DISEASE, by the late Dr. H. Timbrell Bulstrode.
For some years, sanitarians have awaited the results of the investigations conducted
at the instance of the Local Government Board, the object of which was to ascertain
whether there is need for some control over the collection, cultivation, and cleansing of
certain shellfish, other than Oysters, which are eaten either raw or imperfectly cooked,
and which have been shown by circumstantial evidence to have been from time to time
instrumental in producing outbreaks of gastro-enteritis.
Dr. Timbrell Bulstrode was appointed investigator, and his report to the Local
Government Board on the results of his labours, presented in the early part of this
year, is a highly instructive and comprehensive work on this important question.
"As regards oysters, it was shown by the author's Report to the Local
"Government Board in 1896, that there was urgent need for reform in the matter
"of 'fattening' and storage of these molluscs, and at certain places the pollution to
"which the oysters were exposed was gross, obvious and indisputable. It is
"instructive to note that in connection with oysters procured from places obviously
"exposed to pollution there have been subsequently well-marked outbreaks of enteric
"fever and other illness directly attributable to the oysters in question.
"Material improvement has taken place at some of the worst places in the
"condition under which oysters are prepared for markets. This is due in part to
"the outbreaks of enteric fever which occurred before and since the issue of that
"Report, and to the attention drawn to the subject by Reports made by medical
"officers of health. But notwithstanding such improvement, much still remains to
"be done before the public can consume oysters, bought promiscuously, with a
"reasonable degree of safety."