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17
PUBLIC ANALYST'S REPORT.
Gentlemen,
In continuation of the Annual Reports hitherto furnished, I
have again put together the results of the work done between
1st April, 1876, and the end of March, 1877.
The number of Analyses which I have made is 105, besides 17
in duplicate, or 122 in all. In every case of adulteration, or even
suspicion of adulteration, the analysis has been repeated.
Milk Analysis has been systematically carried on. Out of 54
samples, eight were magisterially decided; but the number of
convictions does not represent the number of adulterations. One
of the grossest cases, No. 111, was not prosecuted, and several
vendors were only warned.
Although the labour of the analysis is considerably increased
thereby, I have always adopted the plan of estimating the amount
of ash in a milk, and of the salt in the ash. Unless this is done,
the judgment of the quality of the so-called "solids not fat," which
term includes the sugar as well as the casein of milk, is unfair.
The general result is a decrease in the amount of adulteration of
milk, and a proof, if proof were wanted, that water is the only
common adulteration. But how important it is to follow up the
system of analysis is seen by the mischief that can be occasioned
by poisoned water! The admixture of tap-water from known
London water-companies, even when the supply is good, is always
liable to contamination by sewer-gas, owing to the intermittent
water supply and the position of the cisterns; but water from
country farms is often proved to be the more dangerous addition.
As to the abstraction of Cream, whether of intention or not, the
difficulty of proof is very great. In all cases of doubt I have given
the vendor the benefit.