[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Holborn, Metropolitan Borough].

  • Holborn (London, England). Metropolitan Borough.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Holborn, Metropolitan Borough]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/108 (page 18)
    18 Much of the black smoke nuisance arises from careless or inefficient stoking. Stoking is usually considered an unskilled employment, and the stoker commonly receives but little instructions how to carry out his work. With a view to encouraging careful and efficient stoking, poster cards giving practical instruction as to stoking, and suitable for hanging in boiler rooms, were obtained and a number of employers agreed to exhibit them. We have had numerous enquiries from all over the United Kingdom in reference to these cards. Common Lodging Houses Acts, 1851 and 1853. Seventeen Common Lodging Houses are registered in the Borough for 1,220 lodgers, viz., 1,058 males and 162 females. The Common Lodging House accommodation in Holborn is equal to 28 beds per 1,000 of the population, a higher rate than in any other Metropolitan area except the City of London. The death-rate amongst common lodging house residents is very high ; in this Borough it was 53.3 per 1,000 in 1924. FOOD. Dairies, Cowsheds and Milkshops. The number of registered dairies and milkshops in the Borough at the end of the year was 127. Seven dairies and milkshops were newly registered, and seven removed from the register. In addition to my inspections the Sanitary Inspectors made 1-19 inspections of these premises) and one notice was served for sanitary defects or breaches of regulations. Residue from Milk Clarifiers. As it would seem probable that pigs have been infected with tuberculosis as a result of feeding with infected milk and slime from clarifiers, enquiry was made at the various milk mixing and cleansing depots in the Borough to ascertain what is done with the residue after the milk has been passed through the cleansers. It was found in each case that this residue is at once washed down the drains. Bacteriological Examination of Milk. Eighteen samples of milk were examined for the presence of tuberele bacilli; six of those were also examined to ascertain the number of organisms per cubic centimetre and the smallest volume containing B. coli. Examinations for tubercle bacilli were carried out by animal inoculation ; in two cases (11 per cent.) evidence was established of tubercle infection in the milk. The vendor of the first of these two samples obtained milk, through a Whole sale Company, from three farms and, although in this case the milk was delivered to the retailer without passing through and being mixed at the Wholesale Company's depot, it was still found impracticable to obtain reliable information as to exactly which farm the infected milk came from. Information respecting