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 1914
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch]
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The results of the year's work are summarised in the following table :—
| Quarter of the year 1314. | Number of Samples taken. | Number of SamplesAdul-terated. | Percentage Adulterated. | Number of Prosecutions instituted. | Prosecut ions withdrawn because of Warranties, &c. | Prosecutions proceeded with. | Number of successful Prosecutions. | Pines and Costs. | Amount paid to Analyst for Samples analysed. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | ||||||||
| 1st | 156 | 29 | 19-1% | 10 | - | 10 | 6 | 22 | 11 | 0 | 78 | 0 | 0 |
| 2nd | 175 | 81 | 17-7% | 6 | - | 6 | 3 | 18 | 16 | 6 | 87 | 10 | 0 |
| 3rd | 176 | 39 | 17-6% | 16 | - | 16 | 10 | 19 | 0 | 6 | .87 | 2 | 6 |
| 4th | 261 | 33 | 12-6% | 5 | - | 5 | 2 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 97 | 17 | 6 |
| Total for Year. | | 768 | 132 | 17-1% | 37 | 37 | 21 | 75 | 9 | 0 | 350 | 10 | 0 | |
The samples taken included 556 of milk, 119 of butter, 6 margarine, 3 arrowroot,
2 brawn, 1 bread and butter, 5 cheese, 12 coffee, 1 citric acid, 1 cocoa,
5 cream, 1 crushed linseed, 7 dripping, 3 golden syrup, 2 lard, 3 linseed meal,
2 malt vinegar, 6 non-alcoholic orange wine, 6 non-alcoholic raisin wine, 2 nonalcoholic
ginger wine, 2 olive oil, 1 preserved cream, 2 pickled walnuts, 3 raspberry
jam, 8 sausage, 1 separated milk, 1 table jelly, 1 Tarragona port wine,
4 vinegar and 1 of white sugar.
One informal sample of black currant jam was also taken.
Of the samples of milk 108 or 19.4 per cent. were found to be below the
standard fixed by the Board of Agriculture as compared with 25'3 in 1913, 22.2 in
1912, 34.2 in 1911, 25.5 in 1910, 16.8 in 1909, 17.8 in 1908, 23.2 in 1907, 27.9 in
1906, 20.5 in 1905, and 23.5 in 1904. The proportion of milk samples returned as
adulterated during 1914 was below the average. It is, however, to be mentioned
that 22 of the samples were only below standard to a very slight extent and
the Public Analyst noted them as being possibly genuine. If these be deducted
the percentage of adulteration is reduced to 15.4 as compared with 19.6 for 1913.
In the subjoined table are shown the numbers of samples of milk taken during the four quarters of the year with the numbers and percentages of those found not to be genuine.
| Quarter of the year. | Number of Samples. | Number not genuine. | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 127 | 28 | 22 |
| 2nd | 124 | 28 | 22.5 |
| 3rd | 131 | 32 | 24.4 |
| 4th | 174 | 20 | 11.5 |