The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-19
PARIS KITCHEN MYSTERIES.
French Cooks Hardships-Details Nat
 urally Not Placed Upon Customers

MeUuS.
 In December, 1897, the Societe Fran caise d'Hygiene resolved to appoint commission to inquire into the sanitary conditions under which the kitchen em- ployes in Parisian hotels, restaurants and other establishments of a similar character where food is prepared for public consumption are compelled to carry on their work, and in due course report emb. acing the whole subject was published in the Journal d'Hyglene over the signature of Dr. Bruhat, the secre- tary of the commission. It is not too much to say, remarks the Lancet, that the cndition of things disclosed in this exhaustive report can only be described as deplorable Until few years ago all kitchens, with their offices and annexes where eatables were cooked for the use of the public, were under government surveillance by virtue. of several de- crees dating back upwardof twenty years, but in July, 1894, this important uaiu to tliC SSHNAo ol AiNSsAeti 'pS withdrawn. A ministerial circular sud denly appeared directing the sanitary inspectors of the municipality of Paris tc abstain in future from the inspec- | ton of eating houses of every descrip- ton, because it had been ruled that such establishments were no longer to be regarded as trading places, but rath- CT as partaking of the nature of private houses. And yet to judge by the copi- ous extracts which Dr. Bruhat had ci- | ted from official reports dated prior to the retrograssive circular, the need for efficient supervision and control re- mained as urgent as ever. Writing to the minister of commerce in 1892 M. de Maroussen, with reference to the junior employees in public kitchens, says: "A wretched existence cooking arrange ments badly installed; hygienic condi- tions deplorable."
 In July, 1888, NM. Hudelo and Napias wrote the following description of the kitchen in one of the bulevard restau- rants: "Everythng is on the narrow est scale, and, one was consequently roasted on all sides. The ceiling is scarcely three meters high, while over- head the gas fares Under foot are the pipes from the range, between which and the grill the distance is so small that if two men want to pass each oth- CT one of them has to squeeze himself up against the heated metal. To the
 left is the spit; along the right end is unoccupied Imagine eight or ten peo- pie working together under such cir cumstances, This is, nevertheless, the state of affairs in 80 per cent. of the kitchens not only in Paris but also in our larger towns, even in Algeria" In report by M. Schaere the following passage occurs: "The kitchen is un- l derground, less than two and a half meters high, and along with the larder and offices receives it's light and air through narrow slits, three openings at the level off the street and two on the garden. There are two ventilators, but they work badly. The street sewer be- I ing on a higher level than the floor it is impossible to drain into it, so a cess pit has been sunk which has to be emp tied by pumping. The smell from it is most offensive. The sink drains into the sewer, but sometimes the contents of the latter inundate the kitchen. A urinal hard by is in communication with the cess pit" Another reporter writes: "The kitchen is invariably the filthiest spot in the house. In some establishments you will find la trire in direct communication with the kitchen, or else with the larder, but this IS tri1e, seeing that in others the hands are obliged to convert provision tins into urinals, being forbidden to ob- lstruct the narrow space by passing to and fro.''
 Working from to o'clock in the morning until 10 o'clock at night, with only short intervals for eating, but none for repose, it is no wonder that the hap less people whose fate has made them lParisian cooks should suffer excessive fly from preventable diseases. chiefly tu- berculosis and gastro-hepatitis, and be the victims of an abnormal mortality. Their surroundings are insanity to a degree almost beyond belief, and in ad- dition they have to breathe an atmos- phere heated mot merely up to one hundred and four degrees Fahrenheit
 which is the ordinary temperature in Parisian kitchens, but even as high as from one hundred and forty to one hum dred and sixty degrees" The number of Cooks employed in the public eating establishments of Paris is estimated at twenty thousand, of whom eight thou sand are males and twelve thousand fe- dmales. During the quinquennium of 1S91-95 the death rate among them was 269S per one thousand per annum or about double that of the adult popula- ton of the city. The same factors which are responsible for the unhealthi- ness thus so lamentably exemplified must also react disadvantageous on the food prepared. For the sake of the poor people chiefly concerned, and also in the interests of the immense number of visitors to Paris, of whom British subjects form no small part, who natu- rally are obliged for the most part to frequent hotels and restaurants, it is imperatively necessary that remedial measures of radical description should be forthwith devised for the crying evil which has been so fearlessly ex- posed by the Societe d'Hygiene The commission, in conclusion, strongly re- commended the immediate resumption of systeatic supervision in all kitchens where food or comestibles of any kind are prepared for general use, and they are also of opinion that every employe should be allowed at least one free day per month.