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is if London had chalk water; and further, what risk there is, is
merely that risk which is a necessary accompaniment of everything
we do and of everything we eat or drink.
I have deemed it my duty to make these few remarks on one of
the great subjects of the day. They have not been on my part
merely adopted for the occasion, but they have been the results of
long, patient investigation. I have already in a monograph
on the subject, published at the beginning of this year, dealt
with the matter in detail, and I content myself now, with the further
discussion of this subject looming in the distance, to ask your
careful consideration to the view I have put before you in this
report. As regards questions of taxation, vested interests, and the
like, these as a sanitarian do not concern me, but I may venture to
impress upon you that before you sanction the enormous outlay (and
what the cost will really be it is impossible even to conjecture, for
you know the value to be attached to estimates) you should have
some definite notion of what the evil is that is complained of, and
which it is proposed to remedy, and what are the facts upon which
the authorities believe, or have been made to believe, that such evil
or evils exists.
"THE SALE OF FOOD AND DRUGS ACT, 1875," FOR
YEAR 1876-7.
During the year ending June, 1877, I examined thirty-eight
samples of food which were submitted to me for analysis by your
Inspectors. These consisted of—
10 Arrowroot 4 Tea
5 Cocoa 4 Moist Sugar
5 Mustard 2 Coffee
8 White Pepper.
In addition to these, the Islington Guardians sent me a sample
of the milk delivered at the Workhouse, and a sample of butter was
submitted by a resident of the parish. This makes in all 478
samples I have examined for Islington since my appointment. In no
case during this year was any adulteration detected, except as regards
the milk supplied to the Guardians, in which instance I gave a