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95
municipal trading? The answer to this is that the aim o
private persons would naturally be commercial, whereas the
aim of a Health Authority would be to reduce infantile
mortality by obtaining the cleanest kinds of milk from properly
supervised farms, and only to make a sufficient profit
to render the scheme self-supporting.
Your delegate has in the above report made no allusion
to the work of the Congress itself. There were many excellent
addresses, papers, and good discussions, but his at tention
was directed rather to matters which either are or may become
burning practical questions affecting the Borough of
St. Marylebone, and he trusts he has collected information
of some value.
The Laboratory—Sale of Food and Drugs Act,
The samples taken during the quarter are detailed in
Table XII. Of the 151 samples, not a single one justified the
issue of a certificate of adulteration. The low amount of
adulteration in Marylebone has been commented upon ; it
must, however, be remembered that adulteration in the
Metropolis generally is low; that a large number of samples
are taken every year; that those who formerly occupied a
fairly long black list have been harassed by frequent sampling
aud have left the district in consequence. It must also be
borne in mind that the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts permit
high-class milks to be watered down to the borders of the
statutory limit, and to be also deprived of cream to a certain
definite extent. Of the 57 milks examined, there were
several just on the border line. One milk was found to
contain a little borax; this was not sufficient to preserve it
effectually nor sufficient to support a certificate in the hot
weather of July. The majority of the milks were of firstclass
quality. There have been a few prosecutions in certain
districts as to brandy lately, but there still exists a good
deal of difference of opinion as to what the standard should
be for brandy. The six samples examined this quarter all
contained the amount of ether and higher alcohols which
have been found in genuine brandy, but could not be called
of the highest quality. A large number of the other samples
consist of articles rarely wilfully adulterated, but were
specially examined for metals and injurious substances.