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30
Among the specimens reported as " not adulterated,"
eleven are reported as impoverished by the
abstraction of cream, the amount left in the milk
varying from 7½ per cent. to none. In all these
cases the vendor was " cautioned." In other
specimens of milk, however, the report brings out
some facts that should not be passed over without
comment. We find that specimens were found to
contain 11½, 12, 14, 22, 24½, 13, 12, 13, 12, 17,
14, 16½, 13¼, 12, and 16 parts per cent. of cream,
noticing only the specimens which contained more
than 11 per cent. Upon this an obvious question
arises : How comes it that milk is sold in London
over the counter with such extreme and abnormal
amounts of cream? Two answers will suggest
themselves, i.e., that some vendors knew the Vestry
officers, and, suspecting their object, delivered milk
that was dexterously loaded with cream in the act
of measuring; or that the milk is often so carelessly
retailed that the cream is unequally distributed
with the milk, and that, while in some cases there
was a deficiency of cream that deficiency was due
not to fraudulent abstraction but to unobserved
accident in the mode of distributing the milk.
I have the honour to be,
Rev. Sir and Gentlemen,
Your faithful Servant,
JAMES EDMUNDS, M.D,
5, Savile Row, St. James's.