View report page

Worthy of notice in the Twenty-sixth Annual Report of
the Local Government Board is the working of the Sale of
Pood and Drugs Act, which shows that in 1877, 19.2 per cent.
of the samples analysed were condemned, whilst during the
official year ended just over 9 per cent. of the samples taken
were condemned. Whilst in London 17.7 per cent. of the
samples of milk taken were found to be adulterated, the figure
was 9.1 for the rest of the country. Sunday is the great day
when milk is adulterated, and no fewer than 47½ per cent. of
the samples taken in London on that day were found to be
adulterated.
As the Local Government Report says, "The only way to
extinguish adulteration is by rendering it unprofitable.''
Various interesting prosecutions have taken place in the
metropolis and elsewhere during the year under the Sale of
Food and Drugs Act. The Islington Vestry prosecuted a
grocer for selling cotton seed oil when asked for olive oil. The
defence was that it was marked "Sublime salad oil," and that
salad oil included cotton seed, olive, and other oils; and that