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common sense. In point of fact, it is really silly, for one cannot
see much difference, if it is unhealthy to sleep in a kitchen,
whether a person occupies the whole house if he use the kitchen
for sleeping purposes.
The whole of the legislation with regard to underground
rooms requires much revision. There are thousands work in
rooms and places, lit by artificial light, much below the level of
the street, without apparent injury, and because a room or place
is below the level of the pavement it does not necessarily follow
that it is not a proper place to live in. With regard to ordinary
kitchens, all analyses of the air show that as a rule the air is
purer than in the rest of the house. It is by the kitchen and
basement that most of the air enters : the usual course being
through the kitchens and basement passages up the stairs ; the
writer has indeed found in tenement houses the air of the upper
storeys by far the worst air.
On the other hand not a few of the underground rooms are
dark, and many of them damp. Darkness and dampness are in
themselves sanitary defects of a serious character, rendering any
room unfit for separate habitation, and does not touch the
absurdity of drawing out a schedule of structural conditions any
one of which, however trivial, renders the room legally uninhabitable.
FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS.
The following reports are by the two inspectors to whom
have been allotted special duties. The reports speak for themselves
and give a connected and clear account of the work which
has been accomplished during the year.
REPORT OF MISS BAKER.
January Ist, 1906.
To the Medical Officer of Health.
Sir,
I beg to submit the following report of work for the
year ending 1905 :—
Factory and Workshop Act, 1901.
Number of workshops on register at end of year 1904 2,260
" " " " " " 1905 2,404
,, additional workshops during the year 292
„ removals 148
,, businesses represented 1,957
,, re-inspections made 736
There is a marked improvement in the general conditions
of workshops where women are employed. The complaints