the lot of the journeyman baker is not an enviable one. Measurements were taken of all the shops, and the heights were found to be as follows:

One shop, 5 feet 9 inches high; one, 6 feet; five, 6 feet 3 inches; seven, 6 feet 6 inches; twenty-four, 7 feet; thirty-eight, 8 feet, and the remainder being 8 feet 6 inches or over; two being 14 feet and one 16. All of those below 8 feet were in cellars.

A cellar bakery, as a rule, is not a specially constructed workshop, but is made by fitting up the cellar of an ordinary dwelling house with an oven and a furnace, a few gas jets and a water tap, together with some shelves and kneading boards. Such a place has all the attributes of a cellar. It is small, low, damp, dark, airless, and has the house drains in close contact with its walls and floors. When used as a bakery, the stagnant air of this small place is fouled with the waste products of the gas flames, of respiration, of fermentation, of putrefying dough and filth, and often with sewer gas from untrapped sinks and drains. The atmosphere is further charged with poisonous fumes from the furnace, for the baker, in order to save fuel, closes the damper when his oven is hot.

Modern furnaces are provided with what is known to the trade as a "sulphur flue." That is to say, a special outlet for the fumes when the damper is closed.

The environment of bread making then, clearly demands a liberal allowance of breathing space and fresh ventilation. As a matter of fact, the average cellar bakery breaks every law of sanitation, and presents a state of affairs that would not be tolerated for a moment in any other industry. Put the matter in another way: a large part of the output of bread is prepared on premises that would not be passed as fit for slaughter houses.

Judging from the reports of the medical officers of London, the bakeries of that city are on a par with those in the cities of this State, and they are of the opinion that "it is impossible, at any rate without the use of expensive mechanical means, to convert a cellar into a habitable bakery." Their chief reasons are, briefly, as follows: First, the want of light and air, which, in a workshop, invariably means filth; second, the want of room, which leads directly and indirectly, to a number of evils, such as insufficient breathing space for the workmen, inside furnaces and ovens, inclusion of ash and coal bins and sanitary conveniences, or, worse still, their absence, and inclosure of air inlets, as a

small chamber cannot be ventilated without a draught. But this is not all, for in low lying districts, which the agents of this Bureau have found, there is the danger that in times of heavy rainfall, the sewage may force its way through the drain pipes. into the bake house. It is easy to see that the introduction of a flood of sewage in this way may bring the germs of disease in direct contact with the loaves of baked bread. The investigation has shown that nearly all the cellar bakeries are overrun with rats, mice, cockroaches and other vermin. Then the moist and heated air is favorable to the rapid decay of vegetable matter, and this takes place in the scraps of dough and refuse flour which collect in the hollow sides and beneath the kneading troughs. Moreover, when the loaf is brought out of the oven into a foul bakery, its surface is exposed to any germ disease that may be at hand.

The subject is under scientific investigation, but meanwhile it is open to reasonable surmise whether epidemics may not, in some cases, be due to contaminated bread.

BREAD DETERIORATION.

Dr. J. F. Waldo, Medical Officer of Health, South St. George's, Southwark, England, a specialist on bakeshop investigation makes the following remarks:

"Bread, as every one knows, is peculiarly liable to absorb moisture and gaseous substances. When stored in a badly arranged bakehouse, therefore, it can hardly escape deterioration. Moreover, when prepared under these conditions, it is liable to be injured at every step of its manufacture. The flour becomes damp, musty and sour; the 'sponge' and dough contaminated by the sweating arms of the journeyman, while on all sides it is exposed to the risk of sewage and of other noxious emanations. Lastly, the water with which the flour is mixed is often obtained from the same source which supplies the water-closet, a system which is nothing less than an open invitation for the entrance of sewage matter into an important and universally used article of food."

DOES BAKING STERILIZE BREAD.

This question was answered by Dr. Waldo in a paper, which he read before the Public Health Section at the meeting of the British Medical Association at Bristol, on Aug. 1, 1894. Here are some of the more important extracts:

"The following paper is founded on a large series of experiments. Its main conclusion is, that baking does not necessarily destroy the vitality of micro-organisms (or their spores) that may

be contained in dough. Briefly stated, we have succeeded in obtaining cultures of thirteen different kinds of microbes from bread taken out of the centre of recently baked loaves. Our contention, then, is that baking does not necessarily sterilize a loaf." *

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"There are two ways in which it is conceivable that a loaf might convey specific organisms capable of causing injury to consumers-viz., organisms that have lodged on the crust of the loaf from surface contamination in an infected bakery, and organisms that have possibly escaped destruction in the interior of the loaf during the process of baking.

"When taken from the oven, a batch of loaves is often allowed to lie about in the bakehouse for considerable time. It is obvious that there is every chance of contamination of the crust by the lodgment of bacteria, either from the air, from the trays or shelves on which the bread is laid, or from the hands of the workmen. The fact that the baked loaf is open to infection in a dirty bakehouse seems to be overlooked by those who insist so loudly that baking sterilizes the loaf. Their assumption appears to be that the loaf, once sterilized, will remain so for an indefinite time. The fallacy of this assumption, on the other hand, is recognized by some few people, who resterilize the crust by putting their loaves into a hot oven for a short while before use."

The unsanitary condition of the shops inspected have been the cause of considerable illness, which fact alone should invoke the aid of the legislature towards providing proper inspection, A number of the employes are suffering from pulmonary complaints, rhematism and malaria.

HOURS OF LABOR.

The fact was also ascertained, that bakers are employed longer hours than any other trade reported to the Bureau. In places where they have a Union the hours have been materially shortened, but even now, under various pretexts they are asked or compelled to work overtime in many places, for which they receive no extra compensation.

Of the 664 men employed in the shops inspected, two work seven hours per day, thirty work eight hours, seventy work nine. hours, 352 work ten hours, ninety-seven work eleven hours, 105 work twelve hours, four work thirteen hours, two work fifteen hours and two work seventeen hours.

Of those working ten hours per day, 109 were employed in cracker and pie bakeries and were all day hands. The number working as night hands was found to be 324.

WAGES.

The wages received by employes in the shops reported was as follows: Three received $5.00 per week; eleven, $6.00 per week; six, $7.00 per week; sixteen, $8.00 per week; eighteen, $9.00 per week; eighty-three, $10.00 per week; seventeen, $11.00 per week; 183, $12.00 per week; twenty-six, $13.00 per week; thirty-six, $14.00 per week; forty-three, $15.00 per week; forty-seven, $16.00 per week; twenty-four, $17.00 per week; sixteen, $18.00 per week; and four, $20.00 per week.

It will be noticed that the number of employes given above is less than the total number employed in the several shops investigated. This is explained by the refusal of several employers to give the agents of the Bureau the wage-rate paid.

The employes are classified as first, second and third hands and are graded in pay by first hands, receiving from fourteen (14) to twenty (20) dollars per week; second hands, from eight (8) to fourteen (14) dollars per week, and third hands, from five (5) to nine (9) dollars per week.

A number of cases were reported in which the employe was boarding with the "boss," and, in such cases, the board has been estimated at four dollars a week, and is included in the prices above given.

SANITARY CONDITIONS

In thirty shops, water closets were found in either the work or store room; they were in varying degrees of cleanliness, some of them being untrapped and filthy in the extreme.

Forty-six shops were reported which had sewage pipes in the work or store room. Of this number, sixteen were noted as being in a bad condition and a menace to health and clean products. In three shops it was found that the employes slept in the shop after working hours were over.

The following is from notes made by the agents of the Bureau while making the inspection and will give a better idea of the conditions found to exist than in any other way.

"Swill bucket in the corner of the room (dimension of room 12x18, height of ceiling seven feet), earthen vessel used as substitute for water closet with its contents under the sink. "

"Set kettle holding water used for mixing the dough, covered with slime. Floor and tables very filthy. "

"Shop full of foul odors; cockroaches swimming in the lard. Sewer pipes leaking badly.

"Floor and tables very filthy, decaying material scattered about."

"All supplies kept in barn with the horses. "

"Floor, table and raising troughs very dirty; rubbish everywhere."

"Molasses, flour and lard standing uncovered amidst barrels of decaying fruit, all close by an uncovered and untrapped water closet, pouring forth foul odors; cockroaches abound on tables. and in lard and butter tubs. "

"Stone wall, against which moulding boards are placed very filthy. Barrels filled with swill and other refuse serve as stands on which the moulding board is placed. Rubbish all over the

"Shop in cellar. No windows; artificial light needed all day. Very filthy; boxes of decaying fruit, rags, egg-shells and other refuse scattered about in rich profusion."

"Rags used to grease pans thrown on floor and decaying supplies scattered about.

"A nasty, dirty cellar; artificial light needed all the time; no ventilation. "

"Side walls reeking with filth and moisture. "

"Filthy sink and floor; all tools in same condition. "All tools and raising troughs very dirty.

"Has no floor; all supplies stand on the ground; everything about in worst possible condition."

"Walls hung with cobwebs; vermin everywhere; sink crusted with grease and refuse scattered about. Sink and tables littered with rotten truck. "

"Storage room is exceedingly damp; pails of pie material standing about uncovered while the sewage pipes from above empty through an open tank. "

"Very filthy; baking pans scattered about on the floor, which is littered with rotten stuff; the dough is kneaded on dirty tables against smutty walls. "

"Molasses and lard uncovered under a greasy sink; cockroaches in abundance."

"Water closet in workroom untrapped, emptying into an open drain leading to the river. "

"With heavy rainfall water rises from the sewer and covers floor of work room; water used in mixing is brought into the room in an open filthy trough.