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285
[1913
London, entered into an arrangement with Thomas Wakley, the proprietor of
"The Lancet," to make a series of reports, afterwards known throughout the
world as the "Reports of 'The Lancet' Analytical Sanitary Commission" on
the composition of food, drugs and beverages then sold in London. For the
purpose of these examinations he made thousands of analyses, the publication
of which had very far-reaching effects, and marked an epoch in the annals of
public hygiene in this country, and, indeed, attracted an enormous amount of
attention everywhere, so that even on the continent interest was aroused.
Although he used all the usual scientific methods known at the time for his
analyses, yet he depended most on the use of the microscope, which up to
then had been very little used for examining adulterations in foods and
medicines.
"The Lancet," to its honour, be it said, undeterred by the fear of
prosecutions, boldly published the names and addresses of the persons who
had sold the adulterated foods and drugs, and the natural result was that the
leading organs of public opinion, such as "The Times" and "The Quarterly
Review," took up the question and by their efforts compelled the appointment
of a Parliamentary Select Committee, to whom Dr. Hassall,
Dr. Henry Letheby and others gave startling evidence. The result of the
report of that Committee was that in 1860 the first real Act of Parliament
against the adulteration of food and drugs was enacted, and it was the precursor
of all the Food Adulteration Acts which have since been passed. The
disclosures made to the Select Committee were truly alarming, for not only
was it shown that foods and drugs were adulterated, but that the ingredients
with which they were adulterated were themselves adulterated. For instance,
anatto, which is so often used to cloak the quality of milk, was itself
adulterated with chalk, wheat flour, rye flour, salt and soap, with turmeric,
Venetian red and red lead; and again, chicory, so often used to adulterate
coffee, was mixed with roasted wheat, rye flour, burned beans, farina, sawdust,
carrots, mangle-wurtzel, torrified ground rice, toasted biscuit oak bark tan,
croats (exhausted tan), baked horse liver, litmus and Naples yellow.
It is not proposed to give the long list of adulterations which the Medical
Officer of Health has extracted from the Parliamentary Committee's report,
but he may mention those of one or two of the best known articles of food.
Thus tea was found to be mixed with exhausted tea leaves dressed with gum,
leaves of sycamore, horse chestnut and plum, which were broken up and
mixed with gum; that lie tea—itself a mixture made up of tea dust, gum, and
sand, and faced with Prussian blue or indigo and china clay—was expressly