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grounds for believing is the case, then it would appear that the official
standard has been fixed too low. As proceedings, however, are not, as
a rule, instituted unless the adulteration amounts to 5 per cent. it
would be of considerable advantage to the public were the standard
raised as regards the fat content from 3 to 3.5 per cent.
Preservatives.—Two vendors were prosecuted for selling milk
containing boric acid, 41 and 53 grains to the gallon respectively.
Several vendors were cautioned for selling milk with smaller amounts
of boric acid, varying from 7 to 23 grains per gallon.
An ingenious penny-in-tbe-slot apparatus for supplying milk,
invented by a Westminster tradesman, who has fitted one up so that
the public may obtain milk when the shop is closed. At first, however,
it did not mix the milk properly, with the result that a sample taken
was found to be short of cream (19 per cent. of fat was absent). The
extended use of similar apparatus will add some further difficulties to
the work of checking adulteration.
Sunday Samples—One hundred and two samples of milk were taken
for analysis on Sundays, and of these 15 (14.6 per cent.) were found to
be adulterated and 4 inferior (3.9 per cent). It had been usual to take
samples on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings, but during the
last month of the year the practice of taking samples on Sunday
evenings was adopted, and a large proportion of such samples have
been found adulterated.
Milk at Railway Stations.—Sixty samples of milk were taken on
arrival at Victoria and Charing Cross Railway Stations; 56 were
reported of good quality, 1 inferior, and 4 adulterated (6.6 per cent.).
Separated Milk.—A considerable quantity of separated milk is
consigned to dealers in this City, some of whom state that they sell it
to bakers. I have no doubt that in some instances it is used to mix
with milk of good quality to reduce it down to the Board of Agriculture's
standard. Samples of milk taken at the time of delivery at certain
retailers have been found of good quality, while the milk sold by the
retailers in question is always just a little above or a little below the
standard—just sufficiently below to escape prosecution. As this reduced
milk is sold at the same price as good quality milk, the public who buy
it are being defrauded.
On three occasions separated milk was taken at railway stations,
and two of the samples; were found to contain large quantities of
boracic acid. Penalties were obtained.
Dried Milk.—The means whereby the water can be driven off and
only the solids of the milk left has lately been adopted by several firms.
The resulting product is sold under various names, and several samples
were purchased for analysis, which revealed the fact that in some of