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ii.
up to a maximum of nearly 29 per cent. 103 of all the milks
were more or less artificially coloured, mostly with a mixture of
annatto and an aniline dye. The colouring is added to give a
faint tinge of yellow to white milk, so that the customer may
imagine he is being supplied with a fine rich milk coloured with
the natural lacto chrome from the cow. It is highly desirable
that this addition should be prohibited as unnecessary and
deceptive. Very few milks had any preservatives added : the
raid against preservatives in milk has had an excellent effect.
Butter.
113 butters were examined; of these 7 were margarines
and therefore adulterated. Fifty-four of the butters contained
boric acid, the quantities varying from a few grains up to
35 grains per lb. Here again the various convictions throughout
the country of vendors putting large quantities of preservatives
such as 40 to 50 grains of boric acid to the lb., has done good.
It is rare now to find a heavily boraxed butter.
Cream.
Fourteen samples of cream were analysed; five contained
small quantities of boric acid.
Spirits.
Thirty samples of spirits were analysed, viz., ten of whisky,
five of brandy, six of rum, and nine of gin; as a rule the spirits
were not only genuine but of good quality. One brandy was
found to be below the legal strength.
Drugs.
More articles coming under the British Pharmacopoeia were
analysed than in former years. Although the analysis of drugs
is not easy, especially of certain complicated compound medicines,
yet the analyst has the great advantage of usually having
some sort of standard to work by. 111 drugs were analysed,
and in one case only—a sample of Gregory's powder—was a
certificate of adulteration given. The powder had been carelessly
compounded, the magnesia being 26 6 per cent, instead of
66.6 per cent.