414 



Arsenical Poisoning. 



action of the Government Departments in imposing standards 

 should be based upon the advice of a scientific body of the 

 nature of a Board of Reference. The standards, in the case of 

 particular ingredients, would also define what substances should 

 be considered as inadmissible in food on account of their 

 dangerous character. The Sale of Food and Drugs Acts 

 should be so amended as to enable the responsibility for placing 

 deleterious goods on the market to be brought home to the real 

 offender in a way not at present possible. The powers of 

 Medical Officers under the Public Health Acts should be so 

 extended as to enable them to lay an embargo on the sale 

 of suspected goods pending their official examination. 



Until official standards have been set up for arsenic as recom- 

 mended in the earlier part of the Report, the Commission 

 suggest that penalties should be imposed upon the vendor of 

 any liquid food which contained yj^- of a grain of arsenic 

 or more in the gallon, and, in the case of solid food, T -^ of 

 a grain of arsenic or more in the pound. 



In a separate Report, Dr. Thorpe dissents as regards the 

 recommendations relating to official standards and a Board of 

 Reference, preferring that the propriety of fixing standards- 

 should be entrusted to specially: constituted committees, re- 

 presented by manufacturers and experts, in particular cases. 



