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18
is, openly dispatched to a most immaculate and respectable dealer
in cat's and dog's meat, but who will have more than one side to
his business.
The condition of the carcase will govern the particular market
or channel, but in whatever manner it may be handled or disposed
of, there is not much doubt about the ultimate destination which
will be, not where the food of quadrupeds is sold to the public.
As stated in earlier Reports, an easy and not costly way to
prevent this and similar trickery would be to require all animals to
be submitted for examination prior to slaughtering, and to compel the
meat or carcases to be marked or numbered for identification, and
to be sold and delivered to the retailers with such marks or numbers
in the invoices.
It would then be easy to trace any suspicious meat back from
the retailer in any district, and at one and the same time to protect
the public and to assist the shop-keeping butcher who is often
innocent.
Presumably the objection to some such system as this is its
simplicity and freedom from legal and other costly technicalities.
Its practicability, too, would doubtless be considered a fatal
objection to its being included in the system of Health Laws
observed in a country where how not to be efficient and practical
has become quite a science.
Samples taken
under Food and
Drugs Act.
Passing on to the procedure under the Sale of Food and Drugs
Act, I have to report that 682 samples of various kinds of food were
taken officially and submitted to analysis by Mr. Stokes, the Public
Analyst, during the year. Forty-five of this number were found to
be adulterated, and it will be noted that this shows a great reduction
in the number of adulterated samples as compared with the results
of any previous year. It would be well if one could report that
improvement in the quality or purity of the food corresponded with