View report page

75
phthisis is, however, higher for commercial clerks than in any of the groups quoted
except in the case of "occupied males in London," but the rate of decline noticed in the
decennial interval is on the whole comparatively satisfactory, though it was not quite so
marked as the decline of phthisis among railway clerks.
'It would appear, therefore, that we might rightly deduce the conclusion that
commercial clerks are participating in the improvement in health conditions which have
been a feature of the last twenty years in industrial and other occupations. The most
unsatisfactory figure is the Phthisis rate which, considering the average social status of
clerks, is higher than it ought to be.
The sanitation of offices is simply domestic sanitation to which is superadded
certain special features dependent upon the peculiarities of the occupation. The most
important of these are:—
1. The employment of both sexes with a marked tendency to increase in
the number of women employed.
2. The question of common occupation of rooms with the possibility of
overcrowding and increased facilities for the spread of infection.
3. The sedentary nature of the occupation, and the cramped position which
the body assumes during work, and perhaps the special strain which is thrown
upon special organs, e.g., the eyes.
4. The tendency which one finds to loss of tone in clerks owing to the
nature of the occupation. This very fact requires that not only shall a high
standard of sanitary efficiency be maintained to ensure good health, but that the
individual also should adopt such elementary precautions as are necessary to
improve his physical condition, and that the fullest advantage be taken of his
leisure to attain such end.
As regards the details which most frequently come under review in matters
affecting office sanitation, the following are the principal ones:—
Sanitary Conveniences.—In this connection it is interesting to note that the
City Corporation was possibly the first public body to take cognisance of this important
matter as affecting Manufactories, Warehouses, &c.
Section 101 of the City of London Sewers Act, 1848, reads as follows:—
Water closets
be provided
in Manufactories.
Section 101. And be it enacted, That it shall be lawful for the Commissioners, if
they shall think fit so to do, by Notice in writing to the owner or occupier of any house
or building in which persons of both sexes above twenty in number are employed or
intended to be employed at one time in any manufacture, trade, or business, to require
such owner or occupier ta provide, within a time to be limited in such Notice, a sufficient
Penalty for
neglect.
number of Water-closets or Privies for the separate use of each sex ; and if any such
owner or occupier shall neglect or refuse to comply with such Notice he shall forfeit a
sum not exceeding Twenty Pounds, and a further sum of Forty Shillings for every day
during which such neglect or refusal shall continue.
Since the passing of that Act much progress has been made, and I think it would
be generally granted that all premises should be provided with water-closets sufficient
and suitable for the number of employees and separate for each sex where both are
employed. The fact that women clerks include an increasing proportion of the day
inhabitants of the City has resulted in such provision becoming a more pressing
necessity than it formerly was.