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eating particular foods, by reason of their want of training in medical
science and physiology. Their work, which is valuable in itself
is done when they have informed us, as far as they can, whether the
article of food analysed by them consists of its normal constituents,
and if abnormal ones are present, their nature and amount. I look
upon it as a presumption to apply the coarser methods of the
ordinary chemical laboratory to the highly complicated physiological
processes of the human body, and to endeavour from them to draw
conclusions as to the probable effect of this or that drug or article
of food under the varying conditions of health and disease; such
an attempt is decidedly an incursion into the field of medical science
where they are quite out of place.
The facts of the case of this butter are briefly as follow :—
It contained, according to the Public Analyst, 3·16 per cent.
of free fatty acids against a figure for fresh butter of well under
0·5 per cent., i.e., at least ten times as much as it ought to contain,
and this coupled with rancidity rendered it in his opinion unsound
and unfit for food. Rancidity is a change which is due to either
chemical or bacterial agency or both and is readily detected by taste
and smell. In other words it was a good butter which had undergone
deterioration and become unsound. It was also admitted by
nearly all the witnesses for the defence that the butter could not
and was not intended to be sold over the counter, i.e., not fit for use
as ordinary butter, but that it was nevertheless good enough for the
making of cakes, confectionery, toffee, etc. It was also proved
that on making cakes with it the taste and smell could be so disguised
that the ordinary customer could not detect its presence and that
when extracted from the finished article the percentage of fatty
acids had increased and the rancidity was not lost. Now if the
consumer eats such butter in the ordinary way, he will experience
unpleasant after effects, and until it is definitely proved by proper
physiological experiments that it is not only quite harmless but a
wholesome article of diet, when used for cooking and confectionery,
I decline to accept the statement of traders and analytical chemists
that its use for such purposes is free from objection. To the statement
that it is a wasteful proceeding to destroy the butter or send