“When the Act passed for preventing the adulteration of articles of food and drink there was an immediate apprehension among those bakers in the trade who adulterate their bread that they would be liable to have their bread frequently analysed, &c. But when it was found that no sufficient means were provided by the Act to meet the expenses of this kind of active and constant supervision (the purchaser having to pay the analyst), they became confident again, and have resumed their practice of adulteration without any fear of detection.”[123]
It was felt now that some further move should be made, and Parliament added another Act for preventing the adulteration of food, drink, and drugs to the long list of those which had gone before.
“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 enacted——”[124]
This Act made it incumbent upon all Vestries and District Boards to appoint public analysts to analyse all articles of food, drink, and drugs, on the request of any parishioners, on payment of a fee; and imposed the duty upon them of procuring and submitting for analysis articles suspected to be adulterated, and on their being certified to be so, of taking proceedings before a magistrate, who was given power to impose severe penalties. The offences were more clearly defined, and the expense of executing the Act was to be paid out of the rates.
The Act did much good, but the amount of good was not to be judged by the number of prosecutions and convictions. “Its deterrent effects were undoubtedly great.”[125]
A Select Committee of the House of Commons, which had been appointed in 1872 to inquire into the subject, recommended the repeal of previous Acts dealing with the subject, and the enactment of a new and more compulsory measure, and in concluding their report they said: “Your Committee believe it will afford some consolation to the public to know that in the matter of adulteration they are cheated rather than poisoned. Witnesses of the highest standing concur in stating that in the numerous articles of food and drink which they have analysed, they have found scarcely anything injurious to health.”
In 1875 a further Act dealing with this matter was passed amending and strengthening the existing law.
In September, 1872, another notable step in the sanitary evolution of London was taken in the creation of an authority for the protection of the metropolis against the importation of disease by sea from foreign countries or from home ports.