48

the borough surveyor no cellar dwelling has been erected since 1875 owing to the Public Health Act of that year pro-hibiting their erection. As to Mr. Justice Bucknill’s ques-tion there is no law in Stockport or anywhere else to preventpeople living in a cellar because it is not so clean as it

might be (which was the only evidence given beforethe court as to the cellar in question). The Public HealthAct of 1875, however, lays down certain requirements forcellar dwellings. Dr. Porter, in mentioning that there.are still 157 cellar dwellings in Stockport, states that

they have been periodically visited and inspected with

regard to the requirements of the Act. Most of them are

nominally deficient in one respect or another, 68 have nodrain, and 57 are without any means of through ventilation.Dr. Porter points out that many of these dwellings are keptscrupulously clean and afford a last asylum to " scores ofpoor worn-out old souls." He therefore thinks that thestrict letter of the law should not be enforced but that thecellar should only be closed when the tenant leaves. Heconcludes his report by asking if it be not possible as anordinary commercial speculation to provide dwellings in

which deserving old people could get a healthy room forIs. per week. We are glad to see that the Sanitary Com-mittee are not going to alter their mode of procedure so thatthe aged tenants will be undisturbed until they "leave."Cellar dwellings are not desirable but there are occasions inwhich mercy is better than sacrifice.

CHARITABLE BEQUESTS AND DONATIONSIN 1899.

IN summarising the bequests left to hospitals and medicalcharities during the past year the Charity Record andHospital Times says that £1,390,136, as against £ 1,303,720in 1898, have gone to medical - charities. Referring to

donations our contemporary remarks that it is impossible tomake any comparison. "Up to the commencement of thewar large donations were fairly frequent, but in thelast few months they have been more conspicuousby their absence." Early in the year the executorsof Mr. F. 0. Baines gave £ 10,000 to the NationalLifeboat Institution, and Mr. W. Cadge gave .610,000to the endowment fund of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital,. while Mr. J. Wheeler Bennett, as a New Year’s gift, pre-sented the Bromley (Kent) Cottage Hospital with .64,000.Mr. J. Robinson undertook to build a new wing to the

Nottingham Hospital. Mr. E. P. Wills gave .gZ5,000 to theBristol Jabilee Convalescent Home. "Mr. A. H. Moncurhas offered to build a Sanatorium for Consumption at

Dundee at a cost of .g 10,000, and an anonymousdonor offered L5000 for five years if the scheme

were carried out, and both offers have been accepted.The anonymous donor M.’ has given another £ 5000to Guy’s Hospital. The Earl of Leicester has givenanother £ 5000 to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital,thus raising his total gifts to this institution to £ 40,000.With a view to enabling the committee of the Newcastle-on-Tyne Infirmary to claim a large legacy Mr. J. Eno gave.f.8500. The Duke of Westminster presented the EclipseStakes of £ 10,000 to the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Rhyl.Mrs. T. Lund has offered £ 5000 to establish almshouses at

Padsey and Lord Ashton has handed a cheque for .610,000to the secretary of the Royal Albert Asylum for Idiots,Lancashire."

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.

WE beg to call the attention of our readers to the lettersigned by Dr. Frederick Roberts, Mr. Edmund Owen, Dr. W.Collingridge, Dr. W. Duncan, and Dr. J. E. Squire, appealingto the younger members of the profession to enrol them-selves in the Militia, Yeomanry, and Volunteer forces. Inthe face of present circumstances it becomes the duty

of every man to bear any part that he can in our Imperialdefences, and we feel sure that the medical profession willnot be slow to respond to the appeal of Dr. Roberts and his

co-signatories. -

AN HISTORICAL RECORD OF THE USE OFPRESERVATIVES AND COLOURING

MATTERS IN FOOD,ACCORDING TO THE INQUIRIES OF THE ANALYTICAL

SANITARY COMMISSION OF THE LANCET FROM

1851 TO THE PRESENT TIME.

As is well. known, the question of colouring matters andpreservatives in food is receiving the earnest attention of a

committee of inquiry appointed some months ago by theLocal Government Board. Already a considerable amountof valuable evidence has been given which in view of its

importance and of its great public interest we have publishedand shall continue to publish at length in our columns. We

may claim fairly, we think, to have adopted an initiativeinquiry upon the subject in its modern aspect ourselves threeyears ago when we invited certain recognised authorities onfood and drugs to give us their opinions, which we sub-sequently published, together with the results of our own

work, in THE LANCET of Jan. 2nd, 1897, page 56, under theheading of THE LANCET Special Sanitary Commission on theUse of Antiseptics in Food. These opinions were summarisedby our own Commissioners and we believe that this contribu-tion on the subject has been of material service to the Preser-vatives Committee. The purpose of the present article is toshow that the subject has an interesting history dating back,so far as the work of THE LANCET is concerned, nearly halfa century.

Undoubtedly attention was tirst drawn to the preservationand artificial colouring of food with the commencement ofthe labours of the Analytical Sanitary Commission of THELANCET which was instituted in the year 1851 by the lateMr. Thomas Wakley, M.P., the Founder of the journal. The

gross forms of fraud which this Commission brought to viewwere in the main not related to the specific subject which thepresent Committee on Preservatives are considering. Never-theless some important matters were touched upon whichbear distinctly upon the history of the employment of pre-servatives and colouring matters in food, and which, therefore,we venture to think are of special interest at the presenttime.The first report dealing with the adulterations of coffee

contains little that is germane to the subject, but in THELANCET of Sept. 20th, 1851, page 279,

THE ADULTERATIONS OF MILK*are described. In this article mention is made of the use ofturmeric added for the purpose of producing in milk arichness of colour, making the dilution with water andabstraction of cream less apparent. In the same articlereference is made to the addition of carbonate of soda to

prevent milk from turning sour. Milk thus treated may be

kept, it is said, for eight or ten days. Again, milk of almondsis referred to as being sometimes present in milk, and as oilof almonds is decidedly antiseptic, the object of its additionwas probably for preserving purposes or as a corrective. Thisseems to be the first historic reference to the use ofpreservatives in milk.The next reference to the use of a preservative was in con-

nexion with the

ADDITION OF SULPHURIC ACID TO VINTEGAR.

THE LANCET Commission regarded this addition as

unnecessary, since some makers dispensed with it altogether.As a result of the inquiry it was shown that of 33 samplesanalysed eight samples contained a quantity of sulphuric acidnot exceeding the amount permitted to be added, while inthe remaining cases the amount exceeded this, and in someinstances was three or four times as great.The next inquiry (1852) related to

PICKLES

and their adulteration, and here again the presence of freesulphuric acid was shown and of copper in varying amounts

1 THE LANGET, Jan. 10th, 1852, p. 51