View report page

41
but that they cause no injury whatever to the consumers.
Dr. Brunton says:—
"I think one must remember that poisons are actually
formed from foods by their spontaneous decomposition,
and that foods which might be perfectly good and harmless
at the time they were sold might be allowed by the purchaser
to remain lying in a warm place for such a time that
spontaneous alterations might occur in them, and illness,
or even death, might result from their consumption.
The question really comes to be whether the acids—
salicylic, boric, or benzoic—which are added to prevent
decomposition, are likely to be more injurious to health
than the natural products of decomposition which would
be formed were the preservative not added. My own
belief is that the preservative acids are likely to be considerably
less injurious to health than the natural products
of decomposition.
On the other hand, the opponents of preservatives assert
that all preservatives in food are dangerous to health, and that
they are unnecessary—that milk under ordinary circumstances
will keep good for twenty-four hours, allowing ample time for
distribution and consumption, and that the sanitary safeguard
for foreign and other milk should be refrigeration. A case is
also quoted of a family having used milk preserved with
boracic acid for seventeen years—the daily supply averaging
two pints to each individual, and each pint having four grains
to the pint in winter and six grains to the pint in summer, and
no ill-effects were known to have occurred during this long
period. I may state that section vi. of the Food and Drugs
Act, 1875, permits the addition of an ingredient not injurious
to health, if the same is required for the protection or preparation
of the article in a state fit for carriage or consumption,
but the question is whether the vendors of preserved milk and
butter, &c., should not state for public information as to
whether a preservative is used or not, and, if so, the quantity
used.
French milk is now largely imported into London. During
three months as much as 76,383 gallons came from Normandy.
The milk is kept sweet by the use of an antiseptic called
formalin, which is made from fusel oil.
Customs and Inland Revenue Act.
Sections 4 of the Acts of 1890 and 1891.
A certificate under the above Act for exemption from
inhabited house duty was granted on application to the
owners of Chapter-chambers, Chapter-street.