[Report 1906] / Medical Officer of Health, West Bromwich County Borough.

  • West Bromwich (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1906] / Medical Officer of Health, West Bromwich County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    36/40 (page 36)
    36 Analyst’s Report, To the Chairman and Members of the Sanitary Committee, County Borough of West Bromwich. Gentlemen, Herewith I beg to submit my Annual Report on the work carried out under the Food and Drugs Acts during the year 1906. The total number of samples submitted to me for analysis was 145, or five more than in the previous year, when 140 articles were reported on. In accordance with a. suggestion of the Local Government Board, a portion of these samples, namely 30, were “ un¬ officially ” purchased, that is, the notification to the vendor as to the articles being required for the purpose of analysis, and other formalities at the time of sale were omitted. The Board are of opinion that by utilising the services of an ordinary purchaser after this manner, there are greater possibilities for the detection of fraud. From the records contained in the table given below, it will be observed that of the 30 “ unofficial ” samples, only one was found to be adulterated, representing a percentage of 2.9, and of the 115 “ official ” samples, three, or a percentage of 2.6, were condemned, the amount of adulteration in each group being practically the same. In the table given below will be found a summary stating the number and kind of articles examined during the year. The samples are divided into three classes, according to their quality, viz. : — (1) Genuine, and of good quality. (2) Genuine, complying with the necessarily low official limits, but of poor quality.