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16
WATER (2 Samples.)
Nos. 110 and 111
39.—The examination of samples of Water is not included
in the duties of Public Analysts, under the Sale of Food and
Drugs Act; but as two samples have been examined at the
request of the Sanitary Committee during the year, it will no
doubt be convenient to record the results in this Report:—
Water, No. 110, obtained from a cistern in the Parish,
was certified to be a polluted water, totally unfit for drinking
purposes.
Water, No. 111, which I am informed was obtained from
the service-pipe supplying the above mentioned cistern, was
certified as fit for drinking purposes.
The analytical results in the case of " No. 111," showed
that in composition and character it was an average specimen of
the water supplied by some of the London Companies. It could
be regarded as " sufficiently well-filtered" to admit of its use for
drinking, in view of the general standards of quality allowed.
The effect produced by the storage of the water in a
polluted receptacle is clearly shown by the analysis and condemnation
of "No. 110." The use of a water thus polluted is
unquestionably dangerous to health ; the case is an illustration
of the dangers of neglected cisterns, and of the importance of
applying the constant supply system.
40. Extension of Public Analysis.—The extension of Public
Analysis to other articles besides foods and drugs—although
these afford, as it is, a very wide field of work—is urgently
necessary. That necessity has of late years been very generally
recognised in foreign countries, in some of which the laws against
sophistication, using the word in an extended sense, are far more
comprehensive and effective than in England. The Select
Committee of 1874, upon whose report the Act of 1875 was based,
stated, in effect, that the mere existence of the Acts of 1860 and
1872 had done much good, and that (in 1874) the public were,