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roasting." A person asking for dripping expects to get that, and not a
mixture of fat and water. Dripping is largely used by the poor, and it
is a serious matter if it is going to be adulterated. The Bench in this
case, I think, did well to impose a penalty.
EGGS.
The question of good and bad eggs has always presented a certain
amount of difficulty to the Public Health Department. It is well
known that eggs are variously classified by the shopkeeper as "New
Laid Eggs," "Country Eggs," "Fresh Eggs," and "Eggs." But he
does not, however, give any definition, leaving his customers to imagine
the condition of the members of each of the classes named. In a recent
case under the Merchandise Marks Act, we have gained a little useful
information with regard to eggs. Experts who were called to give
evidence held divergent views as to the date at which an egg ceased to
be "new laid." One went the length of saying that after seven or
eight days the term "new laid" could not be applied, and another that
to warrant the description the new laid egg must be English. All agreed
that Russian eggs—which, by the way, are always packed in two layers
in "flats," and bear a very high number—could not be described as
"new laid." They took too long to reach this country. The magistrate,
in imposing a penalty, stated that to the man in the street the new laid
egg meant one produced in the neighbourhood of where it was purchased.
The proceedings in this case, it should be noted, were taken under the
Merchandise Marks Act, not the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts. These
latter, the stipendiary was of opinion, did not apply in the case of eggs,
but only to foods to which some foreign substance had been added, or
from which some natural ingredient had been abstracted. Because of
this limitation quite a number of articles of food are left untouched, and
the Merchandise Marks Act helps considerably by increasing the number
of substances regarding which action can be taken.
Drugs.
THE SCHEDULE OF POISONS.
The law relating to the sale of poisons is continually a source of
disquiet to the public conscience. Upon the occurrence of a fatality
due to a poison, whether the result of accident or design, in all probability
the scope of inquiry will include considerations of purchase. As the law
stands poisons are divided into two groups, Part I. and Part II. of the
schedule, and the restrictions imposed in the case of any particular drug