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that at first, at least, it might entail an increase in work. The matter is, however,
of sufficient importance from the public health point of view to warrant it.
Just as from this point of view also, the suggestion that there should be registration
of restaurants and cooked-food shops, even of all food shops, is warranted.
Food Stalls.—Another class of food premises to which reference may conveniently
be made at this point are the food stalls. Of these there are considerable
numbers in the market streets, particularly Great Titchfield Street, Bell Street,
Church Street, Blandford Street, etc.
Up to the present the only class of food stall that has received any attention
at all from the Legislature is that from which meat is purveyed. To this certain
requirements in the Public Health (Meat) Regulations, 1925, apply, requiring,
amongst other matters, that there shall be a covering over the top, back and
sides, and that provision shall be made for preventing contamination by flies, etc.
As a result of these regulations a certain amount of improvement has taken place,
the stallholders, following receipt of a notice setting out the provisions with which
they must comply, providing covering of some sort in the positions indicated.
With a view to securing a reduction in the amount of litter in the market streets
and mainly produced by these and other stallholders the Council have arranged
for regular and frequent cleansing each day, and have called upon the stallholders
and shopkeepers to bear.part of the cost. The amount payable is from Is. to 3s.
per week, according to the number of days the stall is in position. In general it
is claimed that improvement has resulted from the introduction of the system.
SCHOOLS.
The Medical Officer of Health of a Borough in the Metropolis is not school
medical officer. The work in connection with both schools and school children is
entirely in the hands of the London County Council and their officers, the local
medical officer of health having little or nothing to do with it. In no part of the
kingdom, indeed, is the divorce between the general public health work and school
medical work so complete as in the Metropolis, and since it is impossible to find
any justification for it on public health grounds, certainly, and probably also on
economic grounds, it is difficult to see why either the central government
authorities or the local authorities have for so long acquiesced in the arrangement
For the reason that the question of re-organisation of public health in
London is under consideration and this as well as Other anomalies are, or will
soon be, under discussion, it is not proposed to take it up here. It may be stated,
however, that because of the existence of the two authorities there is frequently
duplication of work, a quite unnecessary and excessive amount of interchange of
correspondence and from time to time cross-purposes. All of which is contrary to
the best interests of the public health locally and particularly to those of the
children.
In regard to the infectious diseases, as they affect the school child, that there
should be two staffs—the local and the County Council—engaged, appears to be
unnecessary and generally leads merely to the expenditure of a great deal of energy
as a result of each endeavouring to keep the other informed as to the state of
affairs.
That, so far as the general health of the school children, as determined by
medical inspection, is concerned, only one authority, and that not the local
authority but the County Council, possesses full information, is a serious matter.
In regard to conditions found at the medical inspections, the local medical officer
of health receives no direct information; as a matter of fact, if he desires to learn
where inspections are to be made, he must ask to be informed or find out from