1905.] French Law as to Adulteration. 373 



Milk might fall below the standard set up by such contracts 

 owing to circumstances which the farmer could not foresee or 

 control, and in some agreements which have come under the 

 notice of the Board the amount of the penalty for a single breach 

 of the warranty clause appears to be so large that it might 

 conceivably be a temptation to the purchaser to take an 

 unfair advantage of the seller. The sample of milk, moreover, 

 on which the enforcement of the penal clause is made to depend, 

 is, in [most of these cases, to be submitted to an analyst nomi- 

 nated by the purchaser, and his report is to be regarded as 

 conclusive and accepted without dispute. This, it will be 

 observed, gives the farmer no right of appeal and places him 

 entirely in the hands of the purchaser. Contracts containing 

 penalty clauses of this nature should, therefore, be avoided. 

 In the contracts issued by the Dairy Farmers' Associations, 

 a guarantee in the more general terms suggested above has 

 been found sufficient to ensure equitable treatment on both sides. 



The French Journal Officicl of the 8th July last contains a 



law amending the penalties for the prevention of fraud in the 



sale of merchandise and the adulteration of 



French Lav/ food stuffs and agricultural products. These 

 as to 



Adulteration. penalties are substituted for those contained 

 in the law of 16th April, 1897, relating to 

 the suppression of fraud in the butter trade and in the manu- 

 facture of margarine.* 



It provides that anyone who deceives, or attempts to deceive, 

 a purchaser in regard to the nature, quality, or composition of 

 any merchandise, its' species or origin, is liable to imprisonment 

 for not less than three months nor more than one year, and to a 

 fine of not less than £4 nor more than ^"200, or to either of 

 these penalties. The term of imprisonment may be increased 

 to two years in case of the use of false weights or measures, 

 or in the case of attempts to falsify in any way the analytical 

 proceedings. 



* Journal, June, 1897, p. 85. 



