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Parliamentary Publications. 



adulteration as unsatisfactory as that of London. In Man- 

 chester, Salford, Leicester, Cardiff, Huddersfield, and 

 Halifax, the proportion of samples of milk condemned was 

 under 3 per cent. 



The necessity of a supervision of the milk supply on 

 Sundays is illustrated by the case of Clerkenwell, where, 

 during the months of Ma3", June, and July, 42 samples ot 

 milk were taken on Sunday mornings, and as many as 20 

 of them, or 47 J per cent., were found to be adulterated, one 

 sample being certified as skimmed to the extent of 90 per 

 cent., and also to have had 23 per cent, of water added. It 

 is pointed out that whenever the local authorities seriously 

 take the matter in hand the Sunday rate of milk adultera- 

 tion is reduced. 



Legal proceedings were taken against the vendors of 

 1,336 out of 2,091 samples of milk reported against, and in 

 1,101 cases penalties were imposed amounting to £1,746 

 \£>s. 8d. There were 73 fines of £5 each, two between £5 

 and £10, fifteen of £10 each, two between £10 and £20, and 

 two of £20. The remaining 1,007 fines included 138 of §s. 

 or less, 29 of them being of is. and under. 



Butter, or what was sold as butter, was the subject of 

 analysis in 8,256 cases, 725, or 8*8 per cent., being reported as 

 adulterated. This percentage is less than half of that shown 

 in the returns for the five years preceding the passing ol 

 the Margarine Act, 1887. On the other hand, of 345 samples 

 taken during 1896 on behalf of the Royal Lancashire 

 Agricultural Society, under an arrangement by which 

 samples are analysed by the county analyst free of charge to 

 the society, as many as 125, or 362 per cent., were 

 condemned. The county analyst accounts for this extra- 

 ordinarily high rate of butter adulteration by stating that the 

 inspector of the society " by devoting himself entirely to 

 butter has become, to a certain extent, an expert in that one 

 article, and is able very frequently to distinguish impure or 

 doubtful from genuine butter by simple inspection, and only 

 samples which he thinks suspicious are purchased by him." 

 It is not surprising that samples procured under these 

 circumstances should be condemned in a far greater pro- 



