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109
some, but whether it has been watered or not he cannot
legally say. We therefore see that, were the food Inspector
placed in the same position as the Exciseman, then the local
officers and Boards would appear to the public to be quite as
clever and active as they now seem helpless and supine in
the matter of beer.
(2). It is said:—"there is a lot of poor milk about which the Inspector
never finds, and miserable stuff often passes public
analysts as genuine." Here again we are indebted for such
criticism to causes arising out of the state of the law. The
cause of the first portion of the complaint lies in a decision
of the High Court of Justice that milk in transitu from a
vendor to the house of his customer in pursuance of a contract
for a daily supply paid weekly, is not legally on sale to the
public. The Inspector cannot therefore demand a sample,
and even the person receiving the milk cannot take proceedings
because he cannot comply with the needful formalities.
Until Inspectors are vested with additional powers, people
who engage in weekly contracts with their milkman thereby
(unless they make a special written contract legally framed
for the supply of milk of a definite purity), forfeit all protection
from the public Inspectors. This is a point that
should be more generally known, and it is a fact that the
milk so delivered at houses is not, as a rule, so good as that
sold over the counter. On the second head of complaint, the
state of the law has also operated to tie the hands of the
analyst. If a vendor who is charged with diluting his milk
feels himself wronged, the law enables him, very properly,
to appeal against the decision of the public analyst. This
appeal is made to the Excise chemists at Somerset House,
who, as public servants having no local interests, are presumably
the best persons for such a purpose. Unfortunately
this theoretically excellent law has become a potent factor in
causing the supply of slightly diluted milk. All natural
milk contains water, and the amount is variable according
to food, season, &c. In judging of the purity of milk, the
reference chemists have chosen for their standard that of the
poorest possible natural milk, and public analysts are therefore
driven to follow suit and pass all milk as legally genuine
which exceeds this very low limit. If a public analyst chose
to stand up against this standard, his decisions as to quantities
of added water of about ten per cent, or under would be continually
reversed on appeal, and his Board and the public