London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Shoreditch 1903
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch]
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52
SALE OF FOOD AND DRUGS ACTS.
Thereports of the public analyst, Dr. Stevenson, show that 707 samples were
submitted to him for analysis during the year. This number works out at the rate of
one for every 166 persons in the Borough. Of the samples submitted, 154 were taken
by Inspector Lear, 129 by Inspector Firth, 142 by Inspector Jordan, 135 by Inspector
Langstone, 51 by Inspector Clements, and 96 by the late Inspector Quelch. Inspector
Clements began to take samples during the fourth quarter of the year.
The results of the work for the year are summarised in the following Table:—
| Quarter for the year 1903. | Number of Samples taken. | Number of Samples Adulterated. | Percentage Adulterated. | Number of Prosecutions Instituted. | Prosecutions withdrawn because of Warranties, &c. | Prosecutions proceeded with. | Number of successful Prosecutions. | Pines and Costs. | Amounts paid to Analyst for samples analysis. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | ||||||||
| 1st. | 111 | 20 | 18% | 9 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 41 | 3 | 6 | 55 | 10 | 0 |
| 2nd. | 147 | 23 | 15.6% | 17 | 2 | 15 | 14 | 49 | 7 | 0 | 73 | 10 | 0 |
| 3rd. | 186 | 34 | 18.2% | 26 | — | 26 | 24 | 65 | 16 | 6 | 93 | 0 | 0 |
| 4th. | 263 | 35 | 13.3% | 8 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 17 | 4 | 6 | 131 | 10 | 0 |
| Year | 707 | 112 | 15.8% | 60 | 5 | 55 | 51 | 173 | 11 | 6 | 353 | 10 | 0 |
The samples included 345 of milk, 254 of butter, 54 of lard, 27 of spirits, 10 of
Demarara sugar, 6 of coffee, 6 of cheese, 3 of cod-liver oil, and one each of margarine
and oil of lemon.
Of the milk samples 76, or 22.0 per cent., were found not to be genuine. A marked decline in the percentage of adulterated samples of milk is noticeable during the year on comparing the figures for the four quarters, as is seen from the following Table:—
| Quarter of the year. | Number of Samples. | Number not genuine. | Percentage not genuine. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 48 | 14 | 29.1% |
| 2nd. | 52 | 13 | 25.0% |
| 3rd | 80 | 17 | 21.2% |
| 4 th | 165 | 32 | 19.4% |