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of which 398 were certified to be genuine and 11 adulterated, the
adulterations thus being equivalent to 2.7 per cent, of the samples
taken.
Of the total number of samples purchased, 135 were butter,
of which 2 were adulterated; 218 were milk, of which 8 were
certified to be adulterated ; the remaining adulterated sample
was one of coffee. Proceedings were taken in 10 of these cases,
in one case the summons was not served, as the vendor could not
be traced and in the other case a cautionary letter was sent. Of
the total number of samples, 49 were taken in course of, and at
the place of delivery, by an Officer of this Council direct, of
which number none were certified to be adulterated; 2 were
bought by an Officer of the Council direct, both of which were
not adulterated; the remaining 358 samples were taken by agents
employed by the Officers of this Council and a small number of
samples not included in the above were taken in an informal
manner.
The practice prevalent among the poor of buying skimmed
and in fact separated milk simply because it is offered cheaply at
the door is one that ought to be stopped, but up to the present
time we have no power to do so as long as the Vendor makes it
known that the milk he is selling is not ordinary milk. This
information is generally conveyed by the Vendor in some very
ambiguous way so that I fancy that many of the poor people do
not thoroughly understand that they are purchasing this
impoverished milk. The declaration however, is such that
the Agent of the Authority purchasing such milk knows the
character of the milk and therefore no proceedings can be taken
against the vendor. In my opinion the feeding of young children
on this impoverished milk has doubtless something to do with the