View report page

20
consumption are common after middle age, and the
average age at death is very low. 1 hey suffer much
unnecessary exposure to draught, changes of temperature,
working as I observe they do, almost in a
state of nudity in heated air, and then going home
at unseasonable hours. The atmosphere of a bakehouse
contains particles of flour, sulphurous acid,
and carbonic acid, the latter escaping from the
oven or fuel used in it. These more or less irritate
the mucous membrane of the lungs when they once
begin to suffer from a slight cough or catarrh.
In the manufacture of such an important article
of food as bread, persons engaged in it should not be
permitted to work in a foul atmosphere. The ventilation
in almost every instance is bad, and the air in
the rooms where the work is carried on by gas-light is
very different to what it would be in a room on the
ground-floor, and open to day light, with good ventilation.
The water supply cisterns are nearly all placed
in close proximity to a contaminated atmosphere, either
of the bake-house itself, or near to the w.c., or a bedroom
on the same floor, where the bed-linen is not very
clean, and where the men can easily come out halfdressed.
The result is, that from a want of proper
sanitary precautions, the men are kept in a sweaty
state during the many hours they have to work.
The last objection I would make to our modern
bake-house regulations is, the repulsive method of
bread and biscuit making by manual or pedal operations.
%
Patent Bread-making Machines have been long in
use in large bakeries, and many public institutions,