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23
We now directly estimate the amount of alcohol,
ammonia, and acids, and convert our results into solids-notfat—from
which source they have been derived—the fat
itself remaining uniform throughout.
As pointed out in my first letter to you the Act of 1875
is silent about the milk referred to in the Act itself being of
average composition, and in the case of Hewitt v. Taylor
heard by Lords Justices Lindley and Kay, in the Court of
Queen's Bench in 1895, it was decided that a milk having the
composition 7.98 percent. of non-fatty solids, and 2 94 percent.
of fat, and proved to have been sold as it came from
the cow was genuine milk.
It follows therefore that we have no power to fix standards
of quality, and the limits that we impose of 8.5 percent.
non-fatty solids and 2.75 per cent of fat are only
intended to guide the magistrate in demanding strict proof
that poor samples of milk brought before them, are as
obtained from the cow, and not made so by the addition of
water or the removal of fat.
Your letter raises so many novel points in connection with
milk analysis that it would be more satisfactory to see you
than to attempt to write in full reply. So if you can call
here I shall be glad to go over with you the points you have
raised.
Yours faithfully,
(Signed) R. BANNISTER.
Dr. James Edmunds, M.D."
[Copy.] "December 16th, 1897.
Be Milk Reference "No. 53."
Dear Sir,
I thank you for your letter of the 14th inst. I gladly
accept your kind invitation to call upon you and talk over
the various important questions which have arisen out of
our correspondence upon this case.
This particular prosecution has to be reported upon
fully to our Public Health Committee; and, therefore,
I shall be glad if we may first finish in our correspondence
the residual data of this particular case. The
general questions in my letter of the 6th inst. can then
stand over for our conference, and it is to be hoped
that we may arrive at such procedure, and such form of
certificate, as will, in future, prevent trouble other than
such as may arise from "the personal equation" of various
Analysts.