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6

cases of bad or diseased meat, and of short weights and measures, which, be it known, often go along with adulteration. In such cases there is the power of entering upon suspected premises, of seizing and confiscating the articles, and of punishing the wrongdoers by fine or imprisonment.

It may be inquired, how comes it that, with such powers of repression, adulteration so prevails ? The answer is, that the laws in force respecting adulteration are partial only in their operation ; that they relate only to certain articles; that they are for the most part but seldom enforced, and that some of them have even fallen into desuetude. What concerns everybody, what is everybody's business, becomes, in fact, according to the old adage, nobody's business.

The cries of freedom of trade' and 'the liberty of the subject, in connection with adulteration, are in reality unmeaning terms, used as bug bears to frighten the timid and to throw the public off their guard.

In legislating upon the subject of adulteration, it should be remembered that the seller is frequently as much a party to adulteration as the actual adulterator. This is shown by the fact that he often buys articles at prices at which he knows it is impossible that they can be genuine. Again, it should be recollected that it is often the interest of the seller to screen the adulterating wholesale merchant or manufacturer, he, in many cases, being largely in his debt. In the course of the publication of the reports of The Lancet Sanitary Commission' we met with several cases in which the seller preferred to incur the risk consequent upon the publication of his name, rather than divulge the names of the parties by whom he was supplied. The seller, therefore, must not be let off too easily, especially when he attempts to screen the perpetrator of adulteration.

We cannot more appropriately conclude this Summary than in the following words, taken from a very able article on the author's book entitled Food and its Adulterations, contained in the Quarterly Review':-“We have now shown enough to convince the public that the grossest fraud reigns throughout the British public commissariat

... It remains to be seen whether the Government is able and willing to stay this gigantic evil and national dishonour.'

THE SALE OF FOOD AND DRUGS ACT.

A.D. 1875.

An Act to repeal the Adulteration of Food Acts, and to make better provision for the Sale of Food and Drugs in a pure state.

[11th August, 1875.] WI THEREAS it is desirable that the Acts now in force relating to

the adulteration of food should be repealed, and that the law regarding the sale of food and drugs in a pure and genuine condition should be amended:

Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:--

1. From the commencement of this Act the statutes of the Repeal of twenty-third and twenty-fourth Victoria, chapter eighty-four, of the statutes. thirty-first and thirty-second of Victoria, chapter one hundred and twenty-one, section twenty-four, of the thirty-third and thirty-fourth of Victoria, chapter twenty-six, section three, and of the thirtyufth and thirty-sixth of Victoria, chapter seventy-four, shall be repealed, except in regard to any appointment made under them and not then determined, and in regard to any offence committed against them or any prosecution or other act commenced and not concluded or completed, and any payment of money then due in respect of any provision thereof.

2. The term “food’shall include every article used for food or Interpretadrink by man, other than drugs or water:

tion of The term 'drug' shall include medicine for internal or external

words.

use:

The term 'county'shall include every county, riding, and division, as well as every county of a city or town not being a borough:

The term “justices' shall include any police and stipendiary magistrate invested with the powers of a justice of the peace in England, and any divisional justices in Ireland.

6

A.D. 1875.

Prohibition of the mix

ing of injurious ingredients, and

of selling the

same.

Prohibition of the mixing of drugs with injurious ingredients, and

Description of Offences.

3. No person shall mix, colour, stain, or powder, or order or permit any other person to mix, colour, stain, or powder, any article cf food with any ingredient or material so as to render the article injurious to health, with intent that the same may be sold in that state, and no person shall sell any such article so mixed, coloured, stained, or powdered, under a penalty in each case not exceeding fifty pounds for the first offence; every offence, after a conviction for a first offence, shall be a misdemeanour, for which the person, on conviction, shall be imprisoned for a period not exceeding six months with hard labour.

4. No person shall, except for the purpose of compounding as hereinafter described, mix, colour, stain, or powder, or order or permit any other person to mix, colour, stain, or powder, any drug with any ingredient or material so as to affect injuriously the of selling the quality or potency of such drug, with intent that the same may be

same.

Exemption in case of proof of absence of knowledge.

Prohibition

of the sale of

articles of food and of

drugs not of

the proper nature, substance, and quality.

sold in that state, and no person shall sell any such drug so mixed, coloured, stained, or powdered, under the same penalty in each case respectively as in the preceding section for a first and subsequent offence.

5. Provided that no person shall be liable to be convicted under either of the two last foregoing sections of this Act in respect of the sale of any article of food, or of any drug, if he shows to the satisfaction of the justice or court before whom he is charged that he did not know of the article of food or drug sold by him being so mixed, coloured, stained, or powdered as in either of those sections mentioned, and that he could not with reasonable diligence have obtained that knowledge.

6. No person shall sell to the prejudice of the purchaser any article of food or any drug which is not of the nature, substance. and quality of the article demanded by such purchaser, under a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds; provided that an offence shall not be deemed to be committed under this section in the following cases; that is to say,

(1.) Where any matter or ingredient not injurious to health has been added to the food or drug because the same is required for the production or preparation thereof as an article of commerce, in a state fit for carriage or consumption, and not fraudulently to increase the bulk, weight, or measure of the food or drug, or conceal the inferior quality thereof;

(2.) Where the drug or food is a proprietary medicine, or is the subject of a patent in force, and is supplied in the state required by the specification of the patent;

(3.) Where the food or drug is compounded as in this Act mentioned;

(4.) Where the food or drug is unavoidably mixed with some extraneous matter in the process of collection or preparation.

the sale of

article food before sale, and sell

notice.

7. No person shall sell any compound article of food or com

A.D. 1875. pounded drug which is not composed of ingredients in accordance with the demand of the purchaser, under a penalty not exceeding Provision for twenty pounds.

compounded 8. Provided that no person shall be guilty of any such offence articles of as aforesaid in respect of the sale of an article of food or a drug compounded mixed with any matter or ingredient not injurious to health, and not drugs. intended fraudulently to increase its bulk, weight, or measure, or Protection conceal its inferior quality, if at the time of delivering such article from ofor drug he shall supply to the person receiving the same a notice,

giving of by a label distinctly and legibly written or printed on or with the label. article or drug, to the effect that the same is mixed. 9. No person shall, with the intent that the same may be sold in

Prohibition its altered state without notice, abstract from an article of food any of the abpart of it so as to affect injuriously its quality, substance, or nature, straction of and no person shall sell any article so altered without making dis- any part of closure of the alteration, under a penalty in each case not exc twenty pounds.

ing without Appointment and Duties of Anolysts, and Proceedings to obtain

Analysis. 10. In the city of London and the liberties thereof the Commis- Appointsioners of Sewers of the city of London and the liberties thereof, ment or and in all other parts of the metropolis the vestries and district boards analysts. acting in execution of the Act for the better local management of the metropolis, the court of quarter sessions of every county, and the town council of every borough having a separate court of quarter sessions, or having under any general or local Act of Parliament or otherwise a separate police establishment, may, as soon as convenient after the passing of this Act, where no appointment has been hitherto made, and in all cases as and when vacancies in the office occur, or when required so to do by the Local Government Board, shall, for their respective city, districts, counties, or boroughs, appoint one or more persons possessing competent knowledge, skill, and experience, as analysts of all articles of food and drugs sold within the said city, metropolitan districts, counties, or boroughs, and shall pay to such analysts such remuneration as shall be mutually agreed upon, and may remove him or them as they shall deem proper ; but such appointments and removals shall at all times be subject to the approval of the Local Government Board, who may require satisfactory proof of competency to be supplied to them, and may give their approval absolutely or with modifications as to the period of the appointment and removal, or otherwise: Provided, that no person shall hereafter be appointed an analyst for any place under this section who shall be engaged directly or indirectly in any trade or business connected with the sale of food or drugs in such place.

In Scotland the like powers shall be conferred and the like duties shall be imposed upon the commissioners of supply at their