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93
manufacture of spurious butter in that country, and
we shall watch with interest for their report.
The adulteration of spirits continues to flourish; it
seems to consist, however, in simple dilution with
water. The standard fixed by the Act of 1879 allows
the sale of gin watered down to 35° below proof, and,
therefore, composed of only about 32 per cent. of
alcohol and 68 percent. of water. But a good deal of
gin it appears is sold contaiuing less than 20 per cent.
or alcohol.
Much more serious, as regards the public health, is
the extensive sale of drugs which analysis shows to be
not in accordance with the pharmacopoeia. Many of
the samples reported against are, no doubt, not adulterated
in the ordinary sense of the word, but are
merely, from having being originally defective, or
having deteriorated through keeping, below the
standard strength. The result, however, is that a
prescription compounded with such drugs may fail
altogether to produce the effect which would have
been produced by drugs of proper quality. In other
cases, preparations of expensive drugs, such as
quinine, are either unduly diluted, so that a prescription
of three grains would contain only two grains, or a cheap
drug (e.g., cinchonine) is substituted.
Of the 19,648 samples above referred to all but 252
were obtained by officers appointed under the Act of
1875. Of those purchased privately about one fourth
were found adulterated, of those purchased officially
about one seventh. This difference is of course mainly
explicable by the fact that a private purchaser's suspicion
of adulteration is ordinarily pretty strongly
aroused before he bestirs himself to put the Acts into
operation on his own account.
Several important decisions of the High Court of