[Report 1905] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow.

  • Glasgow (Scotland)
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1905] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/156
    during the year 10 conduct an enquiry into the food habits ot over 500 families, comprising over 3,000 persons, whose households required visitation owing to the occurrence of infectious disease. The enquiry was on lines similar to that formerly reported in connection with the school enquiry, and the results serve to emphasise the pressing need for educating the poorer classes of our citizens in the food values of the commoner articles of diet. As an immediately practical measure, the establish- ment by voluntary effort of food canteens in poorer-class districts, where sub- stantial fare could be had at reasonable cost, could scarcely fail to accomplish much good. The risks to which such establishments would be exposed are obvious, hut could be guarded against by home visitation and a knowledge of the social circumstances of their patrons. But in all our poorer working class districts there are many motherless families where the children’s food is a succession of tea-meals, with little variation, and no reliable female help available. It is to these that the canteen would prove invaluable. With regard to the high average number of persons per room indicated in the following Table, it is to be observed that the families selected for the enquiry were those among whom infectious disease was occurring. They were, therefore, pre-eminently families with young children, and the average number of persons occupying the houses is naturally greater than had it been calculated on a more general basis : — BESULTS of an Inquiry into the Number of Inmates and Nature of Feeding of 555 Families in which Infectious Disease (chiefly Measles) occurred. Classification of Diets. Good. Medium. Bad. Breakfast, ... Porridge, Milk, and “ Kitchen.” Tea, Bread, and Butter. Tea, Bread, and Butter. Dinner, Soup, Meat, and Potatoes. Potatoes, Soup. Do. Tea, Tea, Bread, and occa- sionally “Kitchen.” Tea, Bread, Butter, and “ Kifchen.” Tea, Bread, Butter, and occasionally “ Kitchen.” Size of House. 02 O Persons. Classification of Feeding of Families. £ M Adults. Childr’n Total. Good. Medium. Bad. No. % No. 7. No. 7o 1 Apartment, ... 134 299 327 626 36 27 54 J,0 44 S3 Average number of per- sons per room, 2-2 2-4 4-6 2 Apartments, ... 379 1,233 1,167 2,400 173 46 166 44 40 10 Average number of per- sons per room, 1-6 1-5 3-1 3 Apartments, ... 42 190 119 309 30 71 10 24 2 5 Average number of per- sons per room, T5 0-9 2-4 Total, 555 1,722 1,613 3,335 239 230 86