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22
on the part of those to whom the power of carrying
out this Act was entrusted, it has hitherto been
a dead letter. I have been called on in a few
instances to exercise my office as Food Analyst in
this parish. In one instance I was able to defend
a wholesale dealer from the charge of adulteration
brought against him. In other instances I have
detected adulterations in various articles exposed
for sale to a considerable extent. It is not however
by the casual knowledge of a limited number of
individuals of the existence of means to suppress
adulteration, that the evil is to be suppressed, but
by the determination of Vestries and Local Boards
to institute rigid inquiries into the nature of all
articles of food sold to the public, that much good
can be expected to be done.
I have thus commented on the principal subjects
that have occupied my attention in the year 1861.
There are many others to which I might allude, that
I have brought before your attention in previous
years, which have formed the subjects of my fortnightly
reports. Each day and every season of
the year brings with it matters requiring peculiar
attention, of which you have the record in the
Sanitary Inspector's diary of work, and my reports.
What I am most anxious to impress upon your
minds is that although much has been done, much
remains to be done, and that every relaxation in the
systematic efforts now being made for the removal of
disease, must be attended with an increase of death
and disease. To maintain the present standard of