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13
MARKETS AND UNSOUND FOOD.
The legal proceedings taken under Section 47 of the Public
Health (London) Act against persons depositing and offering for
sale articles of unsound Food were as follows :—
January 12th.—G. G. was sentenced to two months for exposing for
sale a quantity of meat unfit for food. This was a very bad case ;
between 2 and 3 cwt. of meat was seized, and it was the second
conviction for a like offence in a few weeks.
January 25th.—T. E. was fined £10 respecting unsound meat
exposed for sale in Green Street. Money paid.
February 8th.—S. C. and his brother S. C., both shopkeepers,
were fined £10 each in respect of a number of tins of unsound
salmon, sardines, and condensed milk, seized on their premises.
The money was paid.
May 15th.—H. C. was fined £5 in respect of a number of
tins of unsound salmon and sardines, seized on his premises.
The money was paid. This case was somewhat remarkable,
in consequence of the magistrate refusing to make an Order to
destroy all the articles seized, as in his judgment they were not
sufficiently bad. The matter was reported in the Press in a manner
that was far from correct, and wholly unflattering to this Authority.
On this we were threatened with proceedings for illegal seizure, and
I expected litigation in consequence of the entirely unforeseen action
of the magistrate. The matter was all the more unsatisfactory, as
there could be no reasonable doubt that all the tins of fish were
decomposing to a greater or less extent, and the tins of pine-apple
seized with them were in a state of fermentation, being blown up
with gas. It will be readily understood that I felt in a somewhat
difficult position; and whilst I was fully prepared to accept the
learned magistrate's decisions on all points of law, I desired, with
all proper respect and deference, to differ very considerably as to
the fitness of these articles for human food. Moreover, I did not
feel disposed to sit down and wait for an action for damages, and I