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I am informed by Dr. Larder that in addition to the number admitted
by the Medical Officers, many more were received on the score of
urgency, without the patients having gone through the customary
routine. In all 6,047 persons were treated by the Medical Superintendent
of the Infirmary during the year.
Probably the following particulars of the new Sale of Food and
Drags Act, 1899, will be found useful.
Sale of Food and Drugs' Act, 1899.—The Board of Agriculture is responsible
for this important addition to the Statute Book. It came into operation on the
1st January, 1900. The several circulars which have been issued by the Board
of Agriculture draw the attention of Local Authorities to the more important of
its provisions. Under Section 2 (1) of the new Act the Board of Agriculture may
procure for analysis samples of any article of food, and thereupon the powers and
provisions of the Acts, with respect to the procuring of samples will be applicable,
subject to certain modifications. The Act provides (Section 26) that, for the
purposes of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, the expression " food " shall include
every article used for food or drink by man, other than drugs or water, and any
article which ordinarily enters into or is used in the composition or preparation
of human food; and shall also include flavouring matter and condiments.
One part of any sample procured by an officer of the Board is in accordance
with Section 14 of the Sale of Food and Drugs' Act, 1875, as amended by Section
13 of the New Act, to be submitted by him for analysis to the public analyist;
but the fee for the analysis is payable to the analyist by the local authority of the
place where the sample is procured. The Act (Section 2 (2) provides that the
Board are to communicate the result of the analysis of any such sample to the
local authority, and that thereupon there shall be the like duty and power on
the part of the local authority to cause proceedings to be taken, as if the local
authority had caused the analysis to be made. It is further enacted [Section 3
(2)] that if the Board, after a communication with a local authority, are of
opinion that the local authority have failed to execute or enforce any of the provisions
of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, in relation to any article of food, and
that their failure affects the general interests of agriculture in the United
Kingdom, the Board may, by order, empower one of their officers to execute and
enforce those provisions, or to procure the execution and enforcement thereof, in
relation to any article of food mentioned in the order.
The expenses incurred by the Board or their officer under any such order are to
be treated as expenses incurred by the local authority in the execution of the said
Acts, and are to be paid by the local authority in the execution of the said Acts,
and are to be paid by the local authority to the Board on demand, or in default
the Board may recover the amount of the expenses with costs from the local
authority [Section 3 (3)].
By Section 5 of the new Act, the provisions of the Margarine Act, 1887, as
amended by the new Act, are extended to "margarine-cheese," which expression
is defined by Section 25 of the Act, as meaning " any substance, whether com"pound
or otherwise, which is prepared in imitation of cheese, and which
"contains fat not derived from milk." The effect of Section 5 is that no such
substance can be lawfully dealt in, exposed for sale, or sold, except under the
name of "margarine-cheese," and under the conditions set forth in Section 6 of the
Margarine Act, 1887, with respect to margarine, mutatis mutandis; and the
section further requires that all margarine-cheese sold or dealt in otherwise than
by retail, shall either be enclosed in packages marked in accordance with the
Margarine Act, 1887, (as amended by Section 6 of the new Act) or shall be itself
conspicuously branded with the words, " margarine-cheese."
By Section 6 of the new Act, the brand or mark required under the Margarine
Act, 1887, or the new Act, to be placed on any package containing margarine or
margarine-cheese must be on the packet itself, and not solely on a label, ticket,
or other thing attached thereto.
The same section also amends the provisions of Section 6 of the Margarine Act,
1887, so as in effect to require that every person selling margarine or margarinecheese
by retail, save in a package marked as aforesaid, shall in every case deliver
the same to the purchaser " in" a paper wrapper (the words " or with" in