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Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
269
In the first place a great difficulty in taking successful proceedings
under the Regulations arises from the fact that the omission to
place the label as provided by the Regulations on the receptacle
containing the cream must be wilful, and having to notify the vendor
before proceedings are taken that the cream has been sold without a
label and an explanation thereof asked for, his answer is framed
accordingly. In all cases but two which have come before me,
I have had to advise that upon the explanation given by the seller
the Court would not hold that he had wilfully evaded the Regulations.
"I have previously referred to this in my report to the Council
as to proceedings on the 9th April last, and I have also given the
Council my views as to the meaning of the word 'wilful' in connection
with the Regulations. In the 'Justice of the Peace' for the
24th inst., in the case of Rex v. Ryan, reported at page 40, the
word 'wilful' in the sub-section of the Act under discussion was held
to mean 'intentional' in the sense that at the time the certificate
of the medical man therein referred to was given he must know he
was making a false statement, and applying that decision to the
Regulations the Magistrate would have to be convinced that in
omitting to put a label on a vessel containing cream the seller
' intended ' to do so.
"Again, we are very much handicapped by the ridicule cast by
defendants' solicitors and others upon the Regulations by the penalty
for an infringement thereof being prescribed under an Act with
respect to epidemic, endemic and infectious diseases, and Acts
relating to quarantine, and the penalty being a sum not exceeding
£100, whereas the maximum penalty under the Food and Drugs Acts
for a first offence is only £20.
"In all cases where cream is asked for and sold without a label
being affixed to the vessel, the defendants will only have to make a
show of small paper vessels with labels affixed thereto to induce the
Magistrate to come to the conclusion that the purchaser was not
prejudiced inasmuch as these things are exhibited in the shop
although not used.