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it is open to the vendor to reduce the article down to the legal
limit and he can do so with impunity. In the writer's experience
this is rarely done, the majority of persons finding in
the long run that it pays better to sell an article of good quality
than obtain a high profit for a short time and subsequently
lose business.
221 samples of milk were analysed; a good percentage of
these were taken on Sundays in the streets from itinerant
barrows, yet with the exception of three, they were all up
to standard, and most of them of quite high quality.
Spirits have a statutory limit, the limit being an alcoholic
strength of 35 degrees under proof for gin; 25 degrees under proof
for the stronger spirits. 15 samples of gin were analysed, 67
of whisky, rum and brandy. The mean strength of the
stronger spirits was 19 degrees under proof, while a sample of
whisky and one of brandy was as strong as 4 degrees below
proof. One sample of whisky was slightly below 25 degrees,
and two samples of rum had been diluted just under the limit.
Most of the gins were 32 degrees under proof.
A careful search for arsenic has been made in most of the
samples submitted; it has now been proved that small quantities
of arsenic may be discovered with the improved processes
available in a number of articles of food; for instance herrings,
eggs, tinned tomatoes and substances which have no relationship
to arsenical sulphuric acid, the cause of the mass poisoning
in 1900 in the Midlands contain traces of arsenic. The writer
has found small traces of arsenic in a few of the articles
enumerated in Table II.
In 11 samples of common salt, 8 were arsenic free, but
3 of the samples contained arsenic in the feeble proportion of
.0024 grain per pound. The Commission on arsenical poisoning
recommend that the limit of arsenical impurity should be one
hundredth of a grain per lb. for solid foods, and one hundredth
of a grain per gallon as regards liquids such as beer.
The interest of finding arsenic in salt lies in the fact that
it is used as a preservative for various meats and enters so
largely into most articles of diet.
SANITARY LEGISLATION, 1903.
There was but little amendment or extension of the ex1sting
Sanitary Law during the year, with the exception of the Housing
of the Working Classes Act, which is considerably and
beneficially amended by the Housing of the Working Classes
Act, 1903.