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samples, but the cases were withdrawn on payment of two guineas
costs; each vendor, at the same time, giving a written undertaking
that he would abstain from the use of preservatives.
One of the cases of milk adulteration calls for special mention.
On September 7th I received private information that a certain
milk carrier made a practice of adding to his milk every morning a
quantity of water from the horse trough at the corner of Willow
Road and Christ Church Road. On a subsequent morning two
sanitary inspectors watched for this man, and at 7.40 a.m. they saw
him wheel his barrow up Willow Road accompanied by a boy.
Having passed the horse trough the boy took a two.quart can from
the barrow and went back to the trough. After carefully looking
round to see that the coast was clear, the boy plunged the can into
the trough, filled it with water and then overtook the man near the
corner of Gayton Crescent and Willow Road. The barrow was
then pushed round Gayton Crescent as far as the bend, when the
milkman stopped the barrow and emptied the can of water into the
churn, and then proceeded to serve his customers. The inspectors,
who were concealed during these operations, took two samples
of the milk, one from the churn and one from a hand.can on the
barrow, to which the water from the trough had not been added.
The Public Analyst found that both samples were well above the
legal standard of purity laid down in the Sale of Milk Regulations
of the Board of Agriculture, but he also found that if he took the
presumably genuine milk in the hand.can as a standard, the milk in the
churn contained two per cent. of added water, and he made out his
certificate on that basis. Proceedings were accordingly instituted
and the defendant, who alleged that the water in the horse trough
was clean and fit for the purpose for which he used it, was fined five
pounds. The case well illustrates the inadequacy of the present law
relating to adulteration. If it had not been for the fact that in this
case, it was possible to take another sample of milk as a standard,
a conviction could not have been secured, although the Inspectors
actually witnessed a deliberate act of adulteration.
In the present year the Council decided to increase the number
of samples taken under the Food and Drugs Acts to 500.
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