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59
this appeal would come on for hearing, and having regard to a communication from
the London Butchers and Pork Butchers' Trade Society submitting to the Council that
in all fairness, some notification ought to be given before the institution of legal proceedings,
the summonses were ordered to be withdrawn by the Council.
With regard to the use of boric acid in food, its employment as a preservative
appears to be very common. In their report (1901) the Departmental Committee of
the Board of Agriculture recommended that the amount of boric acid allowable as a
preservative in cream should not exceed 0.25 per cent., and in the case of butter 0.5
per cent. The latter amount is equivalent to about 38 grains per pound. Butter, however,
is not under ordinary circumstances likely to be consumed by a single person at
the rate of one pound for a meal or anything like such an amount, consequently, butter
containing that amount of boric acid is not likely to occasion any appreciable injurious
results in a healthy individual. With sausages containing 35 grains of boric acid per
pound, the case is different. A pound of sausages may be consumed at a single meal by a
hungry man. There is, therefore, the possibility of an excessive amount of boric acid
being taken with sausages containing as much as 35 grains to the pound, which is more
than two full doses, and might give rise to unpleasant symptoms even in a healthy man.
Boric acid is used internally as medicine in epilepsy sometimes, and also for its local action
on the bladder in some forms of disease of that organ. It is largely eliminated from
the system by the kidneys, and if these organs are unsound it is a question for very
careful consideration, whether it is advisable for boric acid to be taken even in the
smallest of doses. Cases of accidental poisoning by boric acid have been recorded,
the chief symptoms noted being vomiting, diarrhoea, feebleness of the heart s action,
collapse, increased frequency of passing water, bloody urine, skin eruptions, and a stur
perous condition ending in death. No cases of fatal poisoning through the use of boric
acid as a food preservative have, so far as I am aware, attracted attention, but in the
opinion of many eminent authorities the use of boric acid as a food preservative is not
free from risk.
The samples of lard, coffee, bread and butter, golden syrup, treacle, and almond
oil were all reported upon by the analyst as genuine.