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227
[1907
DISTRICT INSPECTION.
Fourteen male inspectors are engaged on this work, to each of whom is
assigned a definite though arbitrary area. Their work has been always of a
most useful character, and under their supervision an enormous amount of
sanitary work has been accomplished in Islington, so that, although the
borough has become more congested, the death-rate not only has not increased,
but has decreased very considerably since 1892. There are, however, many
matters relating to domestic cleanliness and management with which they
cannot deal, their sex, for one thing, being a bar to the work, which in other
places is carried out by the aid of female inspectors or health visitors.
Health Visitors.—Latterly, in addition to male inspectors, many
boroughs and towns, and even counties have appointed health visitors, for it
has been felt that there is good solid work for them to do in the homes of the
poorer classes of the communities, where much ignorance prevails among the
women, the wives and mothers of our race, who, owing to their early training,
or rather the want of it, are often without knowledge of the rudiments of
housekeeping, and consequently their homes are not kept in that cleanly and
orderly state which promotes health, but rather in a condition calculated to
induce disease. Such a state of affairs is hardly to be wondered at when it is
recollected that in these modern days the daughters of the labouring classes
are encouraged, and indeed, their inclinations lead them, to work in factories,
workshops, and laundries, and to take positions in businesses: whereas
formerly, girls in the same class of life became servants, entering the families
of the well-to-do, where they received a training in household work and in the
care and management of children, so that when they, in course of time,
became wives and mothers, they at least had some, often considerable,
knowledge of these very essential matters.
But their own inclination was not the only factor, for undoubtedly
employers seeking cheaper labour, or labour which could be better executed by
women, encouraged them to engage in it, and the nation as a whole were
in no wise averse to it. Consequently, there is now a growing feeling that
something should be done to assist them with advice when they have become
the trustees of homes of their own. Indeed the nation owes it to them in
return for their services in the commercial or manufacturing life of the country
and as a recompense for the time which should have been occupied in fitting
them to become suitable and knowledgeable wives, possessing at least the
rudiments of cooking, nursing, and housekeeping.