ADULTERATION OF FOOD AND DRUGS. 
403 
Where public analysts are appointed the public are entitled, on payment of a 
sum not less than two shillings and sixpence, nor more than ten shillings and 
sixpence, to have any article of food or drink analysed, and to receive a certi¬ 
ficate of the result of such analysis, which certificate is to be received as 
evidence in the event of a charge of adulteration being made. 
As we predicted from the commencement, this measure has altogether failed 
to accomplish what was desired. It has been very partially put into operation, 
but even where the greatest efforts have been made, and the greatest facilities 
existed, for fully and fairly testing the efficacy of the means thus provided for 
mitigating the evils resulting from the adulteration of food, they have been 
found to be of little or no avail. 
It appears that a new attempt is to be made in the present Parliament to 
legislate on this subject, and it is now proposed to include the adulteration of 
drugs. We have received the particulars of a Bill which has been drawn by 
Mr. Postgate, F.B.C.S., of Birmingham, intituled, u A Bill to amend an Act to 
prevent the Adulteration of Articles of Food and Drink, 6th of August, 1860, 
and to prevent the Adulteration of Drugs.” 
The preamble declares that the practice of adulterating articles of food and 
drink and drugs, in fraud of her Majesty’s subjects, and to the great hurt of 
their health and great danger of their lives, requires to be repressed by more 
effectual laws than those now in force. 
By the first clause, adulteration is made an offence. The clause runs thus :— 
Every person who shall admix, and every person who shall order any other per¬ 
son or persons to admix with any article of food or drink, any injurious or 
poisonous ingredient or material, to adulterate the same for sale ; and every 
person who shall admix, and every person who shall order any other person or 
persons to admix, any ingredient or material with any drug, to adulterate the 
same for sale, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and be imprisoned for six 
months with hard labour. v 
Clause 2 refers to persons knowingly selling adulterated articles of food, 
drink, or drugs, and the penalty, where offences are proved, is increased to £50. 
Oue object aimed at in this clause is to afford some protection to the retailer 
who obtains adulterated goods from the wholesale dealer. 
Clause 3 substitutes the words “shall appoint ” analysts in lieu of “ may ap¬ 
point ” analysts, and is made to apply to drugs as well as articles of food and 
drink. The appointments of analysts is by this clause rendered compulsory, the 
present Act only making it permissive. 
Clause 4 gives power—in Great Britain to one of her Majesty’s principal 
Secretaries of State, and in Ireland to the Lord Lieutenant,—to appoint one or 
more competent persons to act as commissioners to confer with and assist the 
local authorities to carry out and enforce the Act. The duty of such commis¬ 
sioners will extend to remote and unpopulous districts where salaried analysts 
are not likely to be appointed. 
Clause 5 provides that the Inspector of Xuisances or the Inspector of Weights 
and Measures, or the Inspector of Markets, one or all of them, as the local au¬ 
thority appointing them may determine, in every district, county, city, or 
borough, shall procure and stamp samples of articles of food or drink or drugs 
suspected to be adulterated, to be analysed by the analyst appointed under this 
Act, and shall, upon receiving the certificate of the analyst stating that the 
articles of food or drink or drugs are adulterated, cause a complaint of an 
offence against this Act to be made before the justices of the peace, who shall 
cause a summons to be issued requiring the seller or adulterator of such food, 
drink, or drugs to appear before the magistrates and answer the charge, the 
expenses of such prosecution, if not ordered to be paid by the party complained 
against, to be deemed part of the expense of executing this Act. 
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