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180 Report of the Medical Officer of Health
It is a well-known fact that there are a large number of tradesmen
in the Borough who, whilst doing a good trade in an adulterated
article, would never serve a strange purchaser with the same article as
that supplied to regular customers, for fear that the person so served
might be a deputy of the Inspector. In these cases it becomes
necessary for a male, or preferably female, assistant to purchase a few
articles once or twice a week and thus become known as an ordinary
customer.
It will be seen by the above Table that practically the only
article purchased by the Inspector during the year was Milk. For this
there are two special reasons—(I) that it would be totally impossible
for him to purchase an adulterated article such as Butter (the two
cases which are credited to him were cases in which Margarine was
exposed for sale openly without a label and he demanded a sample);
(2) a milk vendor of the tricky variety will invariably refuse to serve
the deputy, and the deputy having once asked for Milk the vendor
is put upon his guard and it is a very easy matter for the receptacle
to " accidentally" overturn, and no intentional obstruction can be
shown against him.
It has also been found to be very difficult to procure adulterated
samples during the middle of the day, say from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., it
being well known that the Inspector is more likely to be on duty at
such hours.
This has necessitated much early morning and late evening work.
The Inspector himself has been on such duty for 389 hours during the
past year. However, the result has adequately justified this line of
action as the percentage of adulteration detected in these samples was
9.2 per cent, compared with a general percentage of 7.62.
It is necessary in order to carry out the duties under the Food
and Drugs Acts efficiently for the Inspector employed to carefully note
in the trade and other journals the new forms of adulterations which
are continually being " discovered " by the manufacturer and tradesman
alike, and thus be prepared to safeguard the public interest.
During the first portion of the year the old practice was still
adopted for employing a member of the disinfecting staff to act as a
deputy. However, as reported last year, the number of samples has
increased and the work at the new disinfecting station has also