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The addition of the formalin to the brine as a preservative brought the meat
within the provisions of the Public Health (Foreign Meat) Regulations, 1908
Article 1 (i.) (B) as Foreign Meat of Class 1.
A Notice under these Regulations was therefore served upon the importers
forbidding the removal of the meat from the vessel except for the purpose of
exportation. The meat was eventually exported.
On the 17th May a sample of vanillin crystals and a sample of quinine
were submitted to Dr. F. L. Teed for analysis. The goods had been stowed
in the hold of a vessel near some cyanide of potassium, and as the hold of the
vessel had been flooded with water on account of a fire therein, it was considered
possible that the vanillin crystals and quinine might have been
contamined with cyanide of potassium.
The following is a copy of the analyst's report:—
"20th May, 1909. I have examined both these substances for cyanide
of potassium, and can find it in neither. Should you be nervous
that the cyanide was concentrated in some portion of the cargo that had
not been sampled, I might point out that both quinine and vanilline,
especially the latter are consumed in very small doses. Five grains of
quinine is quite a considerable dose, and except in amateur medical
practice on the West Coast of Africa, I have never heard of it being
taken in doses of more than 30 grains. Now the toxic dose of Potass:
Cyan: is somewhere about 5 grains, so that unless the quinine were
absolutely reeking with cyanide, there would be practically no risk
in consuming it even without purification.
"Vanillin is used very sparingly to the extent say of 1/8 per cent., so
that to get a 5 grain dose of vanilla a consumer would have to absorb
some 4,000 grains or con siderably over ½ lb. of the cake or other article
containing vanillin. The purification should not present any real
difficulty. By the simple process of dissolving in hot water, filtering
and recrystallising, the quinine is obtainable in white crystals, a
sample of which I enclose.
"The vanillin submitted to the same process does not give as white
a product, but I enclose it also for your information. In treating the
vanillin with water the temperature should not be allowed to exceed 170 F.
as vanillin melts at about 176 F., and would separate in the liquid
instead of the cystalline form if attempted to be crystallised above 176 F.
"More elaborate methods of purification could be easily devised, and
would no doubt be used by the manufacturers, and my sole object in