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detected next morning it is then too late to submit it to the Sanitary
Officers. In order to get any redress, food, found to be unsound
after purchase, must be brought at once to the Vestry Hall,
Walworth Road, for examination. It obviously would not be fair
to a salesman for a purchaser to keep meat several hours before
submitting it for examination, as during hot weather freshly killed
meat will often in a few hours change and become unfit for food.
CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD AND BAD MEAT.
Good meat has a pleasant, sweet flavour in its raw state, and
gives off while being cooked a savoury odour. It is bright in
colour, juicy, and firm and elastic to the touch. The meat should
have plenty of fat upon it.
Bad or unsound meat pits or crackles on pressure. If a skewer
is plunged into the middle of the flesh and then withdrawn it will
be found to have an unpleasant and offensive odour. The flesh of
bad meat is wet and not firm ; thin and without fat.
FISH.
Good fish should be firm and glistening, and the gills bright in
colour. The white portion should not be discoloured.
Unsound fish is soft and the skin wrinkled. The flesh pits on
pressure. The gills have an offensive odour.
FRUIT.
Fruit in an advanced state of decomposition is injurious to health.
Unripe fruit should not be eaten in the raw state, but if cooked it
loses its bad qualities and becomes a useful article of food.
GEORGE MILLSON,
July, 1899, Medical Officer of Health.