Arsenical Poisoning. 



413 



Final Report of the Royal Commission on Arsenical Poisoning. 

 [Cd. 1848.] Price $\d. 



The portions of this Report which are chiefly of interest 

 to agriculturists are those which deal with the ways in which 

 foods are liable to become contaminated by arsenic, and the 

 recommendations as to the measures to be taken to prevent 

 injury from arsenic in food. 



The principal ingredients of food, or substances used in food 

 preparation, enumerated as liable to contain arsenic are sulphuric 

 acid, hydrochloric acid, glucose, invert sugar, glycerine, certain 

 colouring matters, boric acid, and malt. In all these cases, 

 however, if due precautions are taken, the arsenic can be 

 successfully eliminated, and the Commission lay down various 

 recommendations as regards the precautions which should be 

 taken by manufacturers with this object. In this connection 

 the Commission enquired into the possibility of the presence of 

 arsenic in grains of cereals and roots grown upon land manured 

 with superphosphate containing arsenic, and also in the flesh 

 of fowls to which small quantities of arsenic had been ad- 

 ministered during fattening : in neither case did they obtain 

 any evidence of risk arising in this way. 



After discussing the existing means of official control over 

 the purity of food, the Commission make the following recom- 

 mendations upon this branch of their enquiry : There is need for 

 efficient central administration in order that the system of 

 control provided by the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts may be 

 properly utilised, not only as regards fraud, but in the interests 

 of public health. The Local Government Board should have 

 the advice of a special officer with suitable scientific knowledge, 

 in relation with the Government Laboratory, who would be able 

 to obtain all information regarding the manufacture of foods. 

 Official standards for the purpose of the Sale of Food and Drugs 

 Acts — not standards of purity — should be prescribed by the 

 Local Government Board, or, in the case of matters affecting the 

 general interests of agriculture, by the Board of Agriculture. 

 Account would have to be taken, in fixing these, of medical, 

 physiological, chemical, and administrative questions. The 



