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lations in the yards and to the condition of the sanitary arrangements.
The food stuffs condemned and voluntarily surrendered included 4,286
lbs. of fruit and vegetables, 410 lbs. of cooked meat, 144 lbs. bacon, 63
stone of fish, 40 lbs. cheese, 55 lbs. jams and jellies. Some 307 tins of
tinned foods were also condemned, the contents of half being fruit and
vegetables, and of the bulk of the remainder, milk.
During one period much tinned food-stuff was detected in the hands
of different retailers which were parts of salvaged consignments, the
containers evidently having been subjected to the action of water or
fire or both. Because of the stresses to which these tins had been subjected,
a different standard had to be adopted when considering whether
or not they should be passed for human consumption than that generally
accepted in determining the fate of tins affected by the less severe
stresses in peace-time. Insufficient control seemed to have been exercised
in the supervision of the goods from the time they were recovered from
the premises in which they had sustained damage to when they were
exposed for sale to the householder. Difficulties were experienced in
determining whether consignments should be released for sale because
while it might be felt that a particular batch which had been exposed
to water, and where the containers were rusting, might be wholesome
if consumed at an early date, there would be no such assurance as to
the innocuousness of the food stuffs if, for any reason, a long time elapsed
before consumption, a period which might occur because the unsightly
containers did not command a ready sale of the products if others were
available or it might occur because the housewife retained the article a
long time in her own domestic store. Later in the year control improved
as it became more common for notices to be received of the entry of
such food-stuffs of doubtful quality into the district.
Food Damaged by Enemy Action.
In the earlier part of the year further incidents resulted in damage to
food shops and necessitated the destruction of a limited amount of
food stuffs.
ISOLATION HOSPITALS.
ADEQUACY OF ACCOMMODATION.
Owing to the general low incidence rate of scarlet fever and of diphtheria
the present accommodation proved more than sufficient to meet the
demands; in fact, the Honeypot Lane Isolation Hospital had been closed
from June to the end of the year.
Connecting the old diphtheria block to the scarlet fever ward has
proved a very great boon, easing the administration at the hospital and
enabling a number of patients to be treated there who otherwise would
have required removal to some other Isolation hospital.