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26
The Adulteration of Food.
A Bill, brought before Parliament, proposing
to amend the former Act of 1862, was withdrawn
in the month of May; it contemplated making
compulsory on local authorities to nominate an officer
as public analyst, whose duty it would be to inspect
and report upon the quality of articles used as food, and
drugs exposed for sale within his district. It is at
present no part of my official appointment to carry
out systematically the duties of such an office, but
recognising as I do its importance as one of the functions
of a true officer of health, I have ventured to make
some investigations for my own private satisfaction.
Besides the examinations of milk, on a large scale,
as shown in this Report, which I have been accustomed
to make annually for the last three years, this year I
have examined the following articles in every day
use: butter, lard, tea,* a few samples of coffee, some
specimens of confectionery, and two samples of whisky.
The slightest reflection and experience goes to show
that a public officer entrusted with real powers
to check these frauds, might exercise great influence
upon the commercial morality of a neighbourhood,
and at the same time render valuable service to
the public health. The loss of even a few pence daily
in articles of food purchased by the wages of a working
man has a cruel effect upon him as the bread-winner
for his family. He is either defrauded in quantity
got for his money, or he must work harder to get
*In February last, Dr. Letheby exposed the frauds going on in the sale
of tea at bonded warehouses in the City. He found chests of re-dried
leaves of exhausted tea, containing but a trace of the active principles of
tea. In England this tea has gone by the name of "Fine Moning
Congou; but at Shanghai it was called Maloo mixture, from the name of
the Street, where we are informed that heaps of it may be seen drying
in the sun, dogs and pigs walking through it, and that thousands of
packages oi this spurious stull are shipped over to foreign countries.