§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTON (Middlesex, Ealing)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board if his attention has been directed to the following paragraph in a letter addressed to Dr. Bell, the Principal of the Inland Revenue Laboratory, Somerset House, by the Society of Public Analysts, in September, 1892, and signed by 119 members of the Society, including nearly all the public analysts in the United Kingdom, in which they state that they have long observed with regret the practice of certifying, in a manner liable to be interpreted by the Court as definite, on samples of milk which have been kept for a considerable time, and which, therefore, when examined, must have been in such a condition as to preclude any trustworthy opinion being formed respecting their original composition; also that the formation of any reliable opinion is in a great many cases impossible under such circumstances owing to the very irregular character of the changes milk undergoes on keeping, and, therefore, express a hope that in future it will be clearly stated in all certificates that owing to decomposition it is impossible to obtain analytical results comparable in point of accuracy with those yielded by the milk when it was fresh; and whether there is any objection to directions being given to Dr. Bell to comply with this request, especially if the practice complained of has led in any instances to failure of justice?
§ *THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. H. H. FOWLER,) Wolverhampton, E.I have been in communication with the Board of Inland Revenue on the subject of the question, and I am informed that the statements contained in the paragraph cited must not be accepted as representing the facts connected with the analysis of milks referred to Somerset House by directions of the Magistrates. No analysis of a sample is undertaken if found in a condition which does not allow of a trustworthy opinion being formed respecting its original composition; and there are no valid grounds whatever for believing that any instances of failure of justice have arisen through the evidence contained in the certificates of analysis 1531 furnished to Magistrates under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts by the chemical officers of the Board of Inland Revenue. In this connection it may be observed, with respect to the samples of milk referred by the Justices in disputed cases and analysed during the year ended March 31, 1893, that, of 26 alleged to contain added water, in only two instances did the Somerset House analysts come to the conclusion that no water had been added, and that, of 12 samples alleged to have been deficient in fat or cream, in only one instance were they of opinion that the fat was not deficient.