BILL TO AMEND ADULTERATION OF FOOD OR DRINK ACT, 1860. 657 
microscope is turned upon it. There is instant arrest of the local circulation wherever 
it goes. Check circulation, and you check absorption, or retard it; and this is why car¬ 
bolic acid “ slows ” the venom-poisoning. Dr. Mitchell states that in no internal dose 
was it of any use to bitten animals, and that he succeeded in killing many of them with 
the remedy while trying to effect a cure; and he wonders at the freedom with which it 
has been employed in Great Britain in and on wounds, and has constantly expected to 
hear of deaths from its external application. 
A BILL TO AMEND THE “ ADULTERATION OF ARTICLES OF FOOD OR 
DRINK ACT, 1860,” AND TO EXTEND ITS PROVISIONS TO DRUGS. 
Whereas the practice of adulterating articles of food and drink and drugs for sale, in 
fraud of her Majesty’s subjects, and to the great hurt of their health and danger to their 
lives, requires to be repressed by more effectual laws than those which are now in force 
for that purpose: 
Be it therefore enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice 
and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parlia¬ 
ment assembled, and by the authority of the same as follows : 
1. Every person who shall admix, and every person who shall order any other person 
or persons to admix, with any article of food or drink any injurious or poisonous ingre¬ 
dient 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 ma¬ 
terial with any drug to adulterate the same for sale, shall for the first offence forfeit 
and pay a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds together with the costs attending such con¬ 
viction, and for the second offence shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and be imprisoned for 
six calendar months with hard labour. 
2. Every person who shall sell any article of food or drink with which to the know¬ 
ledge of such person any ingredient or material injurious to the health of persons eating or 
drinking such article has been mixed, and every person who shall sell as pure and unadul¬ 
terated any article of food or drink, or any drug which is adulterated or not pure, shall for 
every such offence, on a summary conviction of the same before two justices of the peace 
at petty sessions in England, and in Scotland before two justices of the peace in the jus¬ 
tices of the peace court, or before the sheriff substitute of the county, or before justices 
at petty sessions or a divisional justice in Ireland, forfeit and pay a penalty not exceed¬ 
ing twenty pounds , together with such costs attending such conviction as to the said 
justices shall seem reasonable; and if any person so convicted shall afterwards commit 
the like offence, it shall be lawful for such justices of the peace to cause such offender's 
name, place of abode, and offence to be published at the expense of such offender, in 
such newspaper or in such other manner as to the said justices shall seem desirable. 
3. In the city of London and the liberties thereof the commissioners of sewers of the 
city of London and the liberties thereof, and in all other parts of the metropolis the ves¬ 
tries and district boards acting in execution of the Act for the better local management of 
the metropolis in England and Ireland, the court of quarter sessions of every county, 
and the town council of every borough having a separate court of quarter sessions, and 
in Scotland the commissioners of supply at their ordinary meetings for counties, and 
town councils within the several jurisdictions, shall, for their respective city, districts, 
counties, or boroughs, appoint and remove one or more persons possessing competent me¬ 
dical, chemical, and microscopical knowledge as analysts of all articles of food, drink, and 
drugs purchased within the said city, metropolitan districts, counties, or boroughs, and 
shall pay to such analysts such salary or allowances as they may think fit; but such 
appointments and removals shall at all times be subject in Great Britain to the approval 
of one of her Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State, and in Ireland to that of the Lord 
Lieutenant. 
4. In Great Britain one of her Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State, and in Ireland 
the Lord Lieutenant, shall appoint one or more persons to act as commissioners to confer 
with and assist the local authorities in carrying out and enforcing this Act. 
5. The inspector of nuisances or the inspector of weights and measures, or the in¬ 
spector of markets, one or all of them as the local authority appointing them shall think 
fit to determine, in every district, county, city, or borough shall procure and submit 
