ADULTERATION OF FOoop. 350 



boroughs,with a total population of over 600,000 persons, only 
139 samples were taken for analysis during the year, and in 
65 other districts the number procured fell short of one per 
annum for every thousand of the population. In this connec- 
tion it may be noted that the Select Committee on Food 
Products Adulteration, after an exhaustive inquiry into the 
subject in the years 1894-96, expressed the opinion that a 
proportion of samples much in excess of one per thousand of 
the population should each year be taken for analysis in the 
district of every local authority. 
Of the 53,056 samples analysed, 4,970, or 9°4 per cent., were 
found to be adulterated. Proceedings were instituted in 
3,110 cases, and fines amounting in the aggregate to £6,258 
were imposed in 2,608 instances. The percentage of samples 
found adulterated was slightly higher than last year, but for 
five years in succession it has been under 10 per cent., 
whereas the average for the five years 1877-81, when the Act 
was first put into operation, was 16:2 per cent. 
Milk was the subject of analysis in 21,964 cases, of which 
2,314, Or 10°5 per cent., were condemned, as compared with 
9.9 per cent. in 1898. London, in the previous two years, 
had shown an improvement in its rate of milk adulteration, 
but the percentage, which had been 14°6 in 1897, and 12°9 in 
1898, rosein 1899 to 15°4. Only g of the 32 « great towns ” of 
the Registrar General’s weekly returns had a more unsatis- 
factory rate of milk adulteration than London in 1899. The 
practice of adding large quantities of water to milk seems to 
have almost entirely died out, the adulteration being for the 
most part limited to the addition of small quantities of water, 
so as to reduce good milk to the level of that yielded by poor 
cows, and to the abstraction of cream. In the case of con- 
densed milk, 109 samples were examined, of which only two 
were classed as adulterated. Legal proceedings were taken 
against the vendors of 1,438 samples of milk, and penalties 
were imposed in 1,171 cases. 
In the case of butter or of compounds sold as butter 
10,478 samples were examined, and 1,018, or 9°7 per cent. 
were condemned. A large number of samples of margarine 
were also taken, and many of them were found to have been 
