London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Wandsworth 1919
Annual report on the health, sanitary condition, &c., of the Borough for the year1919
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Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
It would be as fair to infer that 90 per cent. of the population
of England were criminals because nine out of every ten prisoners
brought for trial for criminal offences were proved guilty, as to say
that the above figures prove that four out of five, or 80 per cent.
samples of butter sold in the Borough were adulterated.
With the efficient inspection of food that is prosecuted in Wandsworth
it is much nearer the truth to say that in 1919 only four vendors
of butter in the Borough were guilty of substituting margarine.
Again, taking the informal samples, 26 samples in all out of 330
procured were found to contain margarine; but it must be borne in
mind that many of these were repeat samples, and consequently
they may have been obtained from only a small number of vendors.
The presence of preservative was looked for in all samples of butter submitted, with the result that in the case of the formal Samples boric acid was found in quantities as follows:—
| Case No. | Boric acid present. |
|---|---|
| 72 | 0.41% |
| 143 | 0.06% |
| 159 | 0.08% |
| 160 | 0.17% |
| 793 | 0.06% |
As regards the informal samples of butter, 76 were free from
preservative, other than common salt, 248 contained a boron preservative
in quantities below 0.5 per cent. crystallised boric acid;
whilst six, as mentioned above, contained a quantity of this preservative
in excess of the maximum permissible.
Margarine.
Nine informal samples of margarine were reported against:
eight because they contained more than the statutory amount of
butter, namely, 10 per cent., and one as containing an excess of
moisture over the maximum permissible, namely, 16.0 per cent.