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articles of food suspected were respectively butter, dates, pork, potato
crisps, prawns (curried), sandwiches and veal and ham pie. The
premises at which the various foods had been purchased or consumed
were inspected and samples taken for examination where possible, but
no definite results indicating that the particular foodstuff suspected was
the cause of the patients' indisposition were obtained.
Pharmacy & Poisons Act, 1933.
This Act placed upon Local Authorities the duty of enforcing Part II
of the Act and the Rules made thereunder so far as they relate to poisons
in Part II of the Poisons List.
The poisons with which the Local Authority is concerned are
principally those in common use for purposes other than the treatment
of human ailments, e.g., ammonia, hydrochloric acid (spirits of salts),
phenols (carbolic acid), hair dyes, sodium hydroxide (caustic soda),
nicotine, certain arsenical and mercuric compounds, etc.
The names of 230 firms and individuals were on the Council's list at
the end of the year, the trades concerned being mainly grocers and
provision dealers, oil and colour merchants, ironmongers, hairdressers,
and horticultural sundriesmen. Eleven names were removed from the
register and 24 were added during the year.
Ten samples of various preparations were examined. Six were found
to be satisfactory, but three samples containing listed poisons were sold
without that fact being declared to the purchaser as required by the Act
and the rules made thereunder. The vendors were communicated with
and requested to conform to legal requirements in the case of future sales
of similar preparations. Another sample was found to contain a substance
included in Part I of the Poisons List, which may be sold only by
a registered pharmacist. On the vendor's attention being called to the
matter, the article was withdrawn from sale.
The following are notes by the public analysts on the samples examined
by them :—
Of the samples analysed two insecticides were found to contain none
of the listed poisons ; one was merely a solution of soap and the other,
sold as a white fly fumigant, was tetrachlorethane coloured with a red dye.
A medicine sold as " Compound Syrup of Hypophosphites" was
reported to consist of a syrup containing hypophosphites of quinine, iron,
manganese, calcium and potassium. It contained no strychnine or other
poisonous substance.