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201
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
Again, the Inspector visited a small general shop where milk
is retailed and obtained a sample which on analysis was certified
to be deficient in milk fat to the extent of 33 per cent. Upon the
receipt of the certificate, the Inspector, in the interests of justice,
and knowing the reputation of the wholesale man, saw the shopkeeper
and arranged to take a sample on delivery. The Analyst
reported this sample to be deficient in milk fat to the extent of
28 per cent. The wholesale man was summoned and although in
this case again previous convictions were proved, the fine inflicted
was only £2.
Another case of an itinerant butter vendor has occurred
during the year, the circumstances of which are worthy of note as
tending to show the scanty help, or rather the reverse—the opposition—which
the Inspector meets with in the execution of his
duties.
One of the female assistants employed reported that an
itinerant butter vendor was in the habit of delivering butter at a
certain house in the Borough. Having ascertained his regular
time for calling the woman deputy ingratiated herself with the
occupier of the house and asked to be allowed to wait until her
butterman called in order that she might buy some also. Upon
his arrival she purchased half-a-pound (the Inspector being meanwhile
concealed in the kitchen). When the officer came forward
and went through the necessary formalities and proceeded to
divide and seal the sample, both he and his assistant were abused
for using this particular resident's house as a "spying-place," and
this by the very person who was being systematically imposed
upon. This sample was adulterated with 76 per cent. margarine.
In connection with the milk trade I have to report a continuous
increase in a very undesirable class of trader, viz. : the vendor
of "cheap" milk, not the traditional milk and water man, but the
man with two kinds of milk for sale, new milk and what he is
pleased to call "hand skimmed milk." I am of opinion that much
of this mixture of "whole and separated milk" (which is the true
composition of the article with, needless to say, the minimum of
"whole" and the maximum of separated milk), is foisted upon the