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 1909
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, City of]
This page requires JavaScript
101
Proceedings were ordered to be taken in 83 instances, but 7 of these
for various reasons were not proceeded with, 30 cautions were issued,
generally in regard to milk which was slightly below the minimum
standard ; the attention of the vendors was called to the report of the
analyst in 49 instances, and no action was taken with regard to
37 samples which did not conform (14 of these were test purchases and
not samples taken officially, the others deviated only slightly from the
standard).
Milk.—951 samples of ordinary milk were taken during the year.
Of these 86 (9.04 per cent.) were reported by the Analysts to be below the
standard of the Board of Agriculture, and 54 samples were just on the
border line, making a total of 14.8 per cent. of the samples. The percentage
of adulterated (9.04 per cent.) is again below the average (11.2 per cent.) of
the preceding 5 years. The Analysts have graded the samples submitted
to them into four groups:—Good quality, in which the fat was over 3'8
per cent.; fair quality, in which the fat was between 3.3 and 3.8 per
cent.; and poor or inferior quality, in which the fat was between 3 per
cent, (the official standard) and 33 per cent., or in which the non-fatty
solids were between 8.5 and 8.6 (if the fat was also below 3.8). Adul-
Adulterated are those below the official standard of 3 per cent. for fat and 8.5 for solids not fat.
| District. | Total. | Good Quality. | Fair Quality. | Poor Quality. | Adulterated. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Per cent. | No. | Per cent. | No. | Per cent. | No. | Per cent. | ||
| South | 415 | 123 | 29.6 | 179 | 43.1 | 92 | 22.1 | 21 | 5.06 |
| North | 536 | 162 | 30.2 | 178 | 33.2 | 131 | 24.4 | 65 | 12.1 |
| 1909 | 951 | 285 | 29.9 | 357 | 37.5 | 223 | 23.4 | 86 | 9.04 |
| 1908 | 860 | 335 | 38.9 | 267 | 31.0 | 176 | 20.4 | 82 | 9.50 |
| 1907 | 792 | 255 | 32.2 | 290 | 36.6 | 172 | 21.7 | 75 | 9.40 |
| 1906 | 806 | 267 | 33.1 | 252 | 31.2 | 168 | 20.8 | 119 | 14.07 |
| 1905 | 831 | 305 | 36.7 | 281 | 33.8 | 153 | 18.4 | 92 | 11.07 |
A1 though the number of samples below the standard is less, it
is evident that a considerable amount of interference with the milk
takes place; the amount of "good" quality milk is considerably below
the average of the previous years, while the "fair" and the "poor" are
above. Separated milk is added to bring down milk of good quality to
the minimum legal standard, or even lower when it is known that
proceedings will not be taken unless the adulteration is in excess of a
margin allowed by the local authority. Hitherto, this Council has not
prosecuted when the deficiency was under 5 per cent., but successful
proceedings have been taken during the year in several cases where
there had been persistent adulteration within that limit. It has been