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22
SANITARY CHRONICLES, 1895.
analytical skill, was selected from a number of applicants as
his successor. About the same large number of samples have
been analysed under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act as in
former years; the number being 568 as compared with 570
for the year 1894.
MILK.
There is really very little adulteration of milk in
the parish which can be dealt with by law. The majority
of 219 samples which were analysed had certainly in no way
been tampered with; a few had probably been mixed with
separated milk and, as such, showed a poorness in milk fat,
and 12 samples had been wilfully adulterated.
It may be thought that this result is because the
Inspectors are personally known and supplied with different
milk from that which is sold to the public, but this is not so;
for agents have been freely used: samples have been
collected in the street, on Sundays and holidays, and very
early in the morning. Inspectors, on complaint, have
attended at private houses and taken milk on delivery, but
still with the same result; the true explanation being as I
have often reiterated, that the system of steady and methodical
supervision has had its effect. As a rule the grossest
adulterators of milk are not residents and tradesmen belonging
to this district at all, but come from bordering parishes
and sell milk from the barrow in the poorer parts. One, for
example, was rather smartly caught by an Inspector in the
last month of the year, selling "separated" milk for "new."
This man refused his address, but he was ultimately found
to live in Paddington. The Magistrate fined him £10, and as
he could not pay he was sent to prison for six weeks.
This itinerant vendor, should he continue fraudulent
practices, will probably transfer his energies to some other
Metropolitan district in which analyses are few. This is
only an instance of what has gone on for at least ten years:
an itinerant vendor suspected of selling adulterated milk
is ultimately detected, fined or imprisoned, and afterwards
fights shy of St. Marylebone. The writer could also give
instances of persons settling in the parish, setting up a
fraudulent business as milk sellers, and in a few months
having to close their doors, owing to their practices being
detected. Stress is laid upon this matter, for the system of