View report page

109
cause can be assigned, are entirely due to the consumption of articles of food
heavily treated with this drug, and I cannot express too strongly my
conviction that unless the recommendation of the Departmental Committee
on the use of Preservatives in Food be given a legal value, and efficient
disclosure be compulsory at the time of sale of all articles of food to which
preservative has been added, the public have little or no protection from
an injury it is otherwise impossible to guard against.
SEIZURE OF PARTRIDGES IMPORTED FROM THE
CONTINENT.
The importation of partridges from the Continent, especially Germany and
Austria, has, of late years, largely developed, and birds from these places, if
in good condition on arrival, command a very fair price. From time to time,
however, consignments reach the Market in such a decomposed state that
salesmen refuse to accept delivery.
Every precaution is taken by the consigners to ensure that the birds arrive
fresh, but should any delay occur in transit from the Continent, in spite of
the fact that ice is frequently packed in the cases, the birds arrive much
decomposed.
Two such cases occurred in September, when 625 birds consigned from
Buda Pesth were condemned by your officers, thus involving the senders in
heavy loss, as the charges for express delivery alone are very high. The
birds, which had been caught by trapping and netting, were five days in
reaching London via Ostend and Dover.
They are not of the red-legged French variety, but resemble more closely
the ordinary English brown bird.
The Continent is not the most far-distant region from which a portion
of our supply of partridges is derived, considerable quantities being received
from Russia, and even Manchuria, but as these arrive in a frozen condition,
their transport presents fewer difficulties.