View report page

1910]
272
in many cases, especially in tin measures, caseous matter deposited in the
joints and in the interstices where the handles were strengthened with wire.
Matters have now much improved There was, however, one case to which
attention might be called. A milkman was discovered selling milk from a
bottle-shaped milk can, the cover of which on examination was found to be
coated with offensive caseous matter, which appeared to be of many days' growth,
notwithstanding that the owner asserted that it was scalded daily. A sample
of the deposit was shown to the Public Health Committee, who ordered a
prosecution. The man was fined £2 2s.
Ice Cream Shops.—These places were frequently inspected by
the Inspectors during the course of sale of the ice creams, but nothing was
seen that would cause them to take action. In one instance, however, a
Police Constable, 379 N., while on duty on a Sunday morning in April, noticing
that a boy, who had just bought an ice cream from a street vendor, spat
it out, asked him what was the matter with it, and received the reply, " It is
rotten, guv'nor." As a result the constable prevailed on the man to proceed
with him to the Upper Street Police Station pending the arrival of a sanitary
inspector, for whom he had sent.
On the arrival of Sanitary Inspector Agar, he found two cylinders on the
barrow, each of which was half full, one with ice cream, the other with water
ice, and noticed that each smelled fusty and sour, while their taste was sour
and unpleasant, and in his opinion unfit for human consumption. He, therefore,
had the ices brought before a Justice and had them formally condemned.
It turned out afterwards that the outfit had been borrowed for the day; that
the ingredients were good, but that the maker knew nothing about the
manufacture of the articles. He did not reside in Islington, nor was he
registered for the sale of ice creams. He was prosecuted and bound over in
the sum of £2 to come up for judgment, if called upon, within twelve months.
THE ADULTERATION OF FOODS AND DRUGS.
The administration of the Adulteration Acts has always been considered
in Islington to be one of the most important duties devolving on the Public
Health Department, and rightly so, for the purity of the food of human
beings is all important both to the young and the old, as well as to the strong
and the infirm.