London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
City of Westminster 1901
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, City of]
This page requires JavaScript
87
others the houses have been pulled down or are empty. In 486
instances cisterns were required to be cleansed, but it is evident
that this is not done so systematically as the bye-laws require—
viz., " once at least in every six months."
Water Companies' Regulations.
Early in 1901 the Metropolitan Water Companies brought out
a series of new regulations, which they sought to have sanctioned
by the Local Government Board. They were opposed by the
local authorities generally, and finally were withdrawn. The proposed
regulations were considered by your then existing Medical
Officers and Engineers, and a report drawn up conjointly by
these 10 officers was submitted to the Council, and formed the
groundwork for opposing the regulations and for preparing amendments.
Sale of Food and Drugs Acts.
1,230 samples have been purchased during the year and submitted to your analysts :—
| Articles. | No. of Samples. | Prosecuted. | Convicted. | Fines. | Costs. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | ||||
| Milk | 402 | 36 | 35 | 63 | 10 | 0 | 20 | 16 | 0 |
| Butter | 218 | 18 | 12 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 0 |
| Cheese | 135 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 6 |
| Cocoa | 20 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 6 |
| Rum | 30 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 6 |
| Precipitated sulphur | 10 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 6 |
| Margarine not labelled as such. | — | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 6 |
| Selling milk from vehicle without vendor's name or address being inscribed thereon. | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
Samples were also taken of the following articles, to the number
appended:—Drugs, 50; honey, 35 ; raspberry jam, 35; pepper, 20 ;
olive oil, 20 ; vinegar, 5 ; lard, 30 ; treacle, 20 ; golden syrup, 15 ;
Demerara sugar, 30 ; beer, 40 ; sweets, 30 ; condensed milk, 10;
whiskey, 10 ; coffee, 10; arrowroot, 5 ; icecream, 10 ; tinned fruit, 5.
No proceedings have been instituted against the sellers of any of
these samples, generally because they were found genuine, but in
some instances—as in the case of Demerara sugar—because the
report of the analyses had not been received at the end of the
year.