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be legibly set out upon a label; and their use ought certainly to be
prohibited in infants' foods. It may be said, however, that even the
safeguard of a label assumes an amount of knowledge and discrimination
on the part of the general purchaser which is unreasonable.
In the Fortieth Annual Report of the Local Government Board,
1910-11, the following reference to this subject appears:—"We stated
in our last Report that we considered that milk should at all times
be entirely free from preservatives. This is in the interest of public
health; and we observe that a similar recommendation was made at
a recent Conference of Dairy Farmers, who recognised that preservatives
not only acted as a cloak to dirt and dirty management, but,
if allowed to be used, opened the door to the development of unlimited
competition from abroad."
During the year a sample of cream was submitted to me for
examination, by a resident in the Borough, because it was under
strong suspicion of having caused the following sickness in his household:—After
consuming some of the cream on the previous day, a
child of seven years broke out in a slight rash on the cheeks and arms,
and there was some swelling of the cheeks, especially around the eyes.
There was at the same time some constitutional disturbance. I was informed
that the doctor in attendance considered the rash to be "a
form of eczema due to some poisoning." The boy ate a considerable
amount of cream on the Sunday and he woke up with these
symptoms on the Monday morning. On the following Sunday the
mother ate cream and suffered from similar symptoms on the following
morning. The house was a perfectly sanitary one, and it was
impossible for the occupants to suggest any other cause for this
mysterious indisposition. It should be stated that the cream tasted
perfectly good and sweet. On examining the cream it was found to
contain boric acid in the proportion of about 12 grains to the pound.
Since these occurrences the family have either consumed no cream
or consumed it in much smaller amount, and I am informed that
there has been no repetition of the indisposition.