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Vestry's communication, were to be taken as a typical case,
I should concur in the propriety of power to prosecute being
applied for, or, in other words of the addition of the word
"eggs" to the list of foods (meat, poultry, game, flesh,
fish, fruit, vegetables, corn, bread, flour) named in the Act,
because there could be no reasonable doubt that the person who
was selling the eggs which were seized knew that they were
unfit for food. There is a difficulty in the matter, however,
because "bad" eggs cannot be detected off-hand, and bad eggs
may be innocently commingled with good ones in a consignment
of professedly "new-laid." It would nevertheless be reasonable
to include this valuable article of food in the list of foods
scheduled in the Act, so that, in cases like the one mentioned
above, bad eggs might be seized; it being morally certain that no
prosecution would be undertaken by a Sanitary Authority, and
surely no conviction would be obtained, unless the facts were
such—viewed as circumstantial evidence—as to satisfy the
magistrate that the person who exposed for sale or sold the bad
eggs must have been cognizant of their unfitness for food. The
Clerkenwell case is in point, for it was the exceptionally low
price at which the eggs were being sold which drew the attention
of the Vestry's officer and led to the seizure; but under what
authority I know not. The public ought to be protected against
a wholesale injury of this kind. Meanwhile, there would appear
to be a remedy, for it has been decided that to expose for sale, or
have posession of with intent to sell, things unfit for human food
is a common law nuisance, and the Clerkenwell Vestry might have
taken proceedings upon that ground.
METROPOLITAN MAIN DRAINAGE.
The attention of the Metropolitan Board of Works has
necessarily been occupied from time to time with the question of
sewage disposal at the main drainage outfalls; and two reports
thereon, which should have considerable interest for all concerned