"at the bottom. One of these is new, and, in the "other case, the stack pipe had been altered. In a single instance a drain pipe was found open for the reception of the water overflowing from the water receptacle. Three of the more recently constructed "bakehouses have waterclosets in them, while 5 old 46 ones are similarly circumstanced.

I must say that from this abstract it would seem "that my anticipation of three years since has been "realized, for there are certainly signs of much "neglect, which nothing but constant supervision will remedy. It is true that a smaller number, 101 "against 133, require lime-whiting, but that has 'always been the case at Midsummer as compared "with the Spring, when a much larger number was always found to require cleansing after the winter "months.

"But 45 accumulations of refuse under the troughs "against 1 in 1879, and 25 untrapped drains against none, are matters of serious import, and prove conclusively that the average three visits a year of your "sanitary officers were far more effectual than the "one possible visit of Her Majesty's Inspector in "every two years and six months, that being the time "it would take him, on his own calculation, to make "one visit to each of the 1890 bakehouses included "in the district referred to in the Report of Her "Majesty's Chief Inspector of Factories and Work"shops.

"The change was evidently a step in the wrong "direction, for what was wanted then, and what is "still wanted, was not centralization, but registration, "which should have been left in the hands of the Local Sanitary Authority, for this it is which "would alone absolutely prevent the use of unfit places as bakehouses, as it would also prevent the "improper construction of places intended for this 46 purpose."

The only other Report of a Metropolitan Medical Report of Officer of Health, which will be quoted in reference Medical Dr. Dudfield, to this matter, is that of Dr. Dudfield, the Medical Officer of Officer of Health for the Parish of St. Mary Abbotts, Health for St. Kensington, for the year 1881. Referring to Mr. Mary Abbotts Kensington. Lakeman's Report, to which allusion has already been made, Dr. Dudfield says:-" It is stated in the 'Report, which gives no details whatever, that "about three-fourths of the total number of bakeries "in the Inspector's District have been inspected, presumably, once only since January, 1880, i.e., in twenty-two months, so that it would take two years to complete a single inspection of all the "bakehouses. The Act has been in operation two "and three quarter years." Dr. Dudfield then gives an analysis of Mr. Lakeman's Report, concluding with the following quotation from it :-" Therefore, "I do not think that for humanity's sake, we should regret that the inspection of bakehouses has been "added to our duties." On this Report and its concluding paragraph Dr. Dudfield comments as follows:

Truly a formidable indictment against the "policy of recent legislation, and one which may "well cause the public to regret that the inspection "of bakehouses has been added to the duties of "Factory Inspectors, who appear to have no "sufficient time to attend to it, and who, so far as "one can judge from this, the only report on bake"houses in the Report of the Chief Inspector, neither "enforce the sanitary provisions of the Act, nor "exercise the power they possess of calling in the

Sanitary Authority to their assistance when they "happen to inspect a bakehouse and find a nuisance "therein.

"It would be a libel upon Sanitary Inspectors to suppose, as the Factory Inspector would seem to "imply, that they had left bakehouses at the end of

C 2

Inference to

be drawn from

these Reports.

"1878 in the abominable condition above-described "as existing in 1880-1881, and, for all we know to "the contrary, still existing: and we can only sur"mise that bakehouses have fallen into such a con"dition because Factory Inspectors have neglected "their duty. The report, however, will have had "one good effect, inasmuch as it has led to a general inspection of bakehouses by Sanitary Inspectors, "who, whatever their legal status, will not be likely "to allow such nuisances as the Factory Inspector "describes to continue, without at least making a vigorous effort to remove the scandal.

"It has been contended, indeed, that sanitary "officials have no right of entry into a bakehouse now that the Bakehouse Regulation Act, 1863, has "been repealed, and it is not long since I saw this "stated in a trade journal: a baker, in the enjoyment "doubtless of freedom from official inspection, having written to a Factory Inspector to enquire "whether a Sanitary Inspector had any right to "make an inspection of his bakehouse, and obtained a reply in the negative.

"In some parishes, I believe, all inspection of "bakehouses is at an end, i.e. Official Inspectors do not inspect, and Sanitary Inspectors have ceased "to inspect. In this parish, however, the inspection "of bakehouses has been systematically continued "with little objection on the part of the bakers, and many notices for cleansing, &c., have been duly complied with, when, as is seldom the case, a "verbal request for white-washing, &c., had not "been immediately respected. In only one "instance have we been compelled to resort to the "magistrates—and in that one successfully-for "assistance."

If credit is to be placed in the above reports (and it will be observed that they are all made by experienced Medical Officers of Health of high

professional standing and qualifications), it seems impossible to doubt that in the Metropolis the result of the transfer of jurisdiction effected by the Factory and Workshop Act, 1878, was that retail bakehouses were less frequently and systematically inspected than they were when the duty of supervising their sanitary condition belonged to the local authorities. What the effect of the Act of 1878 was in the provinces may, perhaps, be inferred from what is known as to its operation in the Metropolis, and from the fact that no detailed information is given in the Annual Reports of the Chief Inspector of Factories as to the extent to which retail bakehouses had been visited by the Inspectors in other parts of the country. It transpires incidentally, in the Report for the year 1882, that the Inspectors for Birmingham report favourably of the condition of bakehouses in that town, more than 100 of which had been visited by one Inspector, who had also visited 50 in the neighbouring country districts; and the Chief Inspector of Factories also mentions that he has reason to believe that the bakehouses in Glasgow were well looked after prior to the passing of the Act of 1878. It is further stated in the same report that, "in many towns, although there has "been a fair amount of lime-washing done, the "keeping of the bakehouses in a cleanly state, as regards the removal of dirt and refuse, and the mass of waste flour and scraps of dough until they “had become offensive, appears to have been over"looked." It is difficult to infer from these statements that the thousands upon thousands of retail bakehouses which exist in England, Scotland and Ireland, have been systematically visited by the Factory Inspectors: and, indeed, such a task, from the nature of the case, even if properly performed in the towns of England alone, would, probably, have exhausted the energy of a far larger staff of central

Re-transfer of

lation of retail

local authorities.

officials than could possibly have been provided for the purpose.

Enough has, probably, been said to convince the sanitary regu reader that it is not to be regretted that the present bakehouses to Government have seen fit to re-transfer the duty of seeing to the sanitary regulation of retail bakehouses from the Factory Inspectors to the local authorities. This has been done by section 17 of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1883 (46 & 47 Vict., c. 53), which received the Royal Assent on the 25th of August last. The powers which local authorities possess as regards these establishments, by the combined operation of that Act and the Factory and Workshop Act, 1878, will form the subject of the next chapter.