Adulteration of Butter and Milk. 



373 



charge to the Society. Of these 262 samples, 144 or 55 per 

 cent, were found adulterated. 



Legal proceedings were taken in respect of 705 samples, 

 and 619 fines were inflicted, amounting in all to 1,1 55 os. 6d. 

 There were two fines of £20 each, one of ^15, one of £\2^ 

 thirteen of ;^io, four between and £10^ and fifty-one of . 

 The remaining 547 fines averaged £\ 4s. lod. each. 



Milk was the subject of analysis in 18,896 cases, of which 

 1,967, or iO'4per cent., were condemned, as compared with i i*i 

 per cent, in 1896. This is the lowest percentage of milk 

 adulteration recorded by the Local Government Board. Most 

 of the improvement shown last year was in the metropolis, 

 where the proportion condemned fell from 17*7 per cent* 

 in 1896 to 14-6 per cent, in 1897. Five years ago, 22| per 

 cent, of the samples submitted for analysis in London were 

 classed as adulterated. 



Nineteen of the thirty-two great towns included in the 

 Registrar-General's weekly returns had, in 1897, a lower rate 

 of milk adulteration than London, and in several of them the 

 rate was under 3 per cent Thus, in Manchester, only 

 twenty-six samples out of 1,114 wer,e condemned ; in Cardiff, 

 eleven out of 409 ; in Preston, all the forty-three samples 

 taken were genuine; in Oldham, thr0e samples out of 1 50 were 

 condemned ; in Leicester, three out of 1 26 ; and in Gates- 

 head, one out of 37. 



In some instances the public are stated to have been 

 defrauded by the sale, as skim milk, ot milk from which 

 practically all the fatty matter so necessary to nutrition, had 

 been removed by means of a separator. It appeared from 

 the evidence reported in one case that 93 and 95 per cent, 

 respectively of the original fat had been removed from the 

 two samples of milk examined. 



Some analysts recognising the difficulty of distinguishing 

 between adulterated milk and milk that is genuine but very 

 poor, have caused analyses to be made of samples taken 

 direct from the cows. The result has not always been satis- 

 factory. By far the richest portion of the milk is that 

 which is last yielded by the cow, and if the inspector is 

 supplied with the first quart that is drawn it will probably 



