View report page

SALE OF FOOD AND DRUGS ACTS.
21
Report it appears that over 500 bodies, either to wait burial
or for the purposes of inquest, are received annually.
The Mortuary has been supplied with a patent coffin
for the reception of the extremely decomposed corpses that
from time to time are received. Since the patent coffin was
supplied in the winter months, it has not yet been
sufficiently tried to give an opinion as to its merits.
The coffin may be described as a large shell, large
enough to receive another coffin within it. The coffin lid
is trapped by means of a groove in the walls of the coffin,
which groove may be filled with a disinfecting liquid; in
short, the arrangement is very similar to an inspection
chamber cover. Any gases which may be evolved pass
away through a small vent tube, which can be led into the
outer air.
THE LABORATORY.
Sale of Food and Drugs Acts.
It has been laid down by the Local Government Board,
that no local authority, which does not cause to be taken at
least one sample per year to every 1,000 of population,
carries out the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts properly. In
St. Marylebone last year 602 samples were analysed, or
about 4 to every 1,000 of population. Hence, it may be
truly said, that the Adulteration Acts come in for a large
share of attention. This is the more important for it was
shown in evidence before the Committee of the House,
which recently considered the whole subject of food
adulteration, that the amount of adulteration in different
districts showed a curious relation to the activity of the
officers whose duty it was to take samples and submit them
for analysis. In those districts where few samples were
taken adulteration was common. On the other hand, in
districts in which the Acts were methodically administered,
and a large number of samples taken, adulteration was
rare. This is certainly true of St. Marylebone. For years
over 500 samples have been taken annually, and year by
year adulteration decreases.