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poorer classes could not obtain that supposed advantage of getting their meat,
&c., baked, they would have recourse to a less extravagant mode of cooking.
In Glasgow, (where there are 350 bake-houses without steam power) and I
believe in all the other cities in Scotland, there are no Sunday bakings
carried on ; indeed the bakers' shops are not open for any purpose on Sundays.
It appears that in Scotland power is given to the Medical Officer of Health,
through the Inspector of Bake-houses, to prohibit the use of any bake-house
not adapted for the purpose, either through bad ventilation or otherwise.
Pboposed Annual Licensing oe Bake-houses.
As a result of my inspection of the bake-houses, I am of opinion that it is
most desirable they should be annually licensed by the Magistrates, in a
similar manner to cow-houses and slaughter-houses ; and if any bake-house is
found to be so badly constructed, as to be neither fit, nor capable of being
made fit, for healthy occupation, the license should not be granted, and the
further use of such place prohibited.
Registration oe Death and Sickness.
The importance of the registration of Death, and the causes thereof, has
been fully acknowledged, and great benefit has accrued to the community by
the regular publication of the returns of the Registrar General. These
returns enable the local authorities to direct special attention to those districts
which show an increased amount of mortality, especially when such
mortality is caused by epidemic diseases. But the value of these returns
would be greatly enhanced if the diseases which most generally prevail, were
forwarded to a public office simultaneously with the death registers, so that
the public might be informed, not only of the mortality of any district, but
of the amount of illness which prevailed among the inhabitants.
In a letter which I addressed to the Editor of the Journal of Public
Health, which was published in that periodical in July, 1848, I drew
special attention to the importance of obtaining a statistical return of cases
of sickness; and I stated, "that the mortality returns, as published by the
Registrar General, afforded only an imperfect knowledge of the state of the
public health; for it may happen that if the prevailing diseases in a particular
District are of a severe character, although comparatively few persons are
attacked, the deaths will be large ; while, on the other hand, cases of illness
may be very numerous, and the deaths comparatively few."
The only objection to obtaining and publishing the records of illness is
that of expense; but, as at the present time so much is being said and
written about obtaining a national record of sickness, and of the advantages
to be derived by the public in their being early in possession of such
returns, the money required for such purposes will, I am convinced, be readily
granted by the Government.
In the year 1857, Dr. conway Evans, one of the Medical Officers of
Health for the Metropolis, undertook to prepare a weekly return of the rise
and progress of disease in London. This was compiled from the District