§ 7. Any violation of the provisions of this act shall be treated and punished as a misdemeanor; and whoever shall impede, obstruct, hinder, or otherwise prevent any analyst, inspector or prosecuting officer in the performance of his duty, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be liable to indictment and punishment therefor. §8. Any acts or parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed. § 9. All the regulations and declarations of the State Board of Health made under this act, from time to time and promulgated, shall be printed in the statutes at large. 10. This act shall take effect at the expiration of ninety days after it shall become a law. As directed by the Board at its meeting, June 23, the following circular of information and suggestion was issued: CONCERNING THE LAW TO PREVENT ADULTERATION OF FOOD AND DRUGS. The State Board of Health is required by this law to take cognizance of the interests of health as they relate to the sale of food and drugs, and the adulterations of the same. For this purpose it has undertaken the necessary investigations, and it now appeals to the people of the State for information and suggestions that may lead to the correction. of wrong practices which the provisions of this law are designed to prevent. Information and voluntary reports are specially desired concerning the following points: In regard to Food-articles : 1. Whatever is known or suspected of the adulteration of milk, condensed or uncondensed. 2. Whatever is known or suspected of adulterations and spurious materials sold as dairy butter. 3. Whatever is known or suspected of spurious or artificial liquids sold as wine. 4. Whatever spurious or adulterated substances are combined with or sold as sugar. 5. Whatever alkaline and other earthy substance is fraudulently sold as soda and its salts. 6. Whatever artificial mixtures are sold as baking powders, concerning which there is proof of injurious effects on health. 7. Whatever sugars, confections or other mixtures are known or believed to contain terra alba, or other earthy and mineral or metallic substances. 8. Whatever substances, mixtures or compounds recognized or sold as articles of food, drink, or medicine, are in, or to be placed in, the market for sale, and which are below the natural quality or strength, or which in the judgment of those concerned may be sold and used as articles of food, beverage or medicine, in accordance with the exemptions provided in sections 3 and 4 of chapter 407. In regard to Drugs or Medicines : 1. Whatever substances are known or suspected of any adulteration, or any depreciation from the officinal standards of the Materia Medica, and the Pharmacopoeia, as designated in section 2, chapter 407, of the Laws of 1881. 2. Whenever a drug or compound, the composition of which is not established by a national pharmacopoeia, shall be manufactured, offered and used in the State of New York, the standard ingredients of its composition and the range of variability from such standard or standards should be duly certified and officially filed at the office of the State Board of Health. There are medicinal compounds, of this kind, of such practical and extensive use, that their correct standards should be maintained by whoever makes and sells them. This Board has appointed eight distinguished chemical analysts, located in various parts of the State, to serve under this law. Arrangements have been made for collecting, the necessary samples of food-articles and drugs. Whenever a citizen in this State desires to have samples of food or drugs tested, which are suspected of adulteration or other fault, he will please give notice by mail to Prof. Charles F. Chandler, chairman of the sanitary committee of this Board, under whose supervision the analyses and investigations are conducted, who will return his request, etc., concerning the same. The rules he will give in each case for procoring and sealing up samples for analysis should be followed. Request. All who are interested in promoting the welfare of life and health. by guarding against adulterated and deleterious articles of food, beverages and medicine, will please carefully to observe and inquire concerning the illegal traffic in such articles; and this Board specially requests that whenever any person is cognizant of a case, or cases, in which there is, or seems to be, evidence of poisoning or injury from the use of any food-articles, beverages, drugs, condiments, and the accessories of food, information should be immediately given to the State Board of Health at its Albany office, and the reason for such opinion should be at once communicated, with the name of the informer. All such names and information will be so reserved, and the Board's action will be so directly responsible, that no inconvenience shall result to informants. The State Board of Health desires the fact to be well understood by the public that this law originated as a national measure for the protection of the people, as recommended by the National Board of Health and National Board of Trade; and that in the State of New York its administration will be based upon effectual co-operation of the State Board of Health with the people and honest producers and tradesmen, and upon the faithfulness and skill of this Board's carefully selected chemical analysts. On behalf of the State Board of Health, At its meeting in June this Board placed the supervision of all work connected with the Food and Drug Law under that subdivision of its members known as its Sanitary Committee; and on the 6th of July the chemists and examiners convened in the city of New York and entered upon organized work under the direction of said committee, of which Prof. Charles F. Chandler, of Columbia College, is chairman. A definite rate of compensation was agreed upon and soon was accepted by the eight chemists thus engaged. Two expert inspectors were employed to gather samples for the use of the chemical analysts, and for ascertaining the facts relating to the substances used as foods, beverages and drugs. Subsequently a third expert inspector was employed. E. H., Secretary. REPORT OF THE SANITARY COMMITTEE OF THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH ON THE ADULTERATION OF FOOD AND DRUGS. By CHARLES F. CHANDLER, Ph. D., Chairman. The Sanitary Committee makes the following report on the work performed during the past year in carrying out the provisions of chapter 407 of the Laws of 1881, entitled "An act to prevent the Adulteration of Food and Drugs;" passed May 28, 1881. It was decided by the Board that the first step in carrying out the provisions of this act should be a careful examination of the food and drugs sold in different parts of the State in order to ascertain the nature and extent of the adulteration practiced; also to have carefully examined the methods of analysis in use for the detection of such adulterations, and to have presented for the use of those on whom the enforcement of the act would finally devolve the best literature on the subject. For this purpose the different articles of food and drugs were divided into twelve groups, and these were assigned to chemists in different parts of the State for investigation and report. The following list exhibits the classification: ANIMAL FOOD. I. Milk fresh and condensed. Assigned to C. F. Chandler, Ph. D., Columbia College, New York. II. Butter, dairy and artificial; cheese; lard; olive oil; and fruit essences. Assigned to G. C. Caldwell, Ph. D., Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. III. Canned meats and animal foods, fresh, smoked, salted, canned; extracts and essences of meat and fish; gelatine and isinglass. Assigned to A. H. Chester, Ph. D., Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y. VEGETABLE FOOD. IV. Cereals, and the products and accessories of flour and bread foods, wheat, rye, barley and rice, oatmeal, corn-meal, sago, tapioca and leguminous preparations, special artificial foods for infants and invalids, baking powders, cream tartars, bicarbonate of soda, bicarbonate of ammonia, alum powders and the "alum question." Assigned to E. G. Love, Ph. D., New York. V. Canned fruits and vegetables, preserves, vinegar, pickles, mustard, ginger, spices, antiseptics employed in preserving, glazing and enamel as affecting food articles. Assigned to S. A. Lattimore, Ph. D., University of Rochester, Rochester, N. Y. VI. Sugars, syrups, molasses, glucose, confectionery, honey, and soda-water-syrups. Assigned to W. H. Pitt, M. D., Buffalo, N. Y. VII. Tea, coffee, cocoa. Assigned to S. A. Lattimore, Ph. D., University of Rochester, Rochester, N. Y. VIII. Wines, beers, spirits and cordials. hardt, Ph. D., Syracuse, N. Y. DRUGS. IX. Crude vegetable and animal drugs. Ph. D., New York. Assigned to F. E. Engle Assigned to F. Hoffmann, X. Pharmaceutical chemicals and their preparations. Assigned to F. Hoffmann, Ph. D., New York. XI. Gelatine and sugar-coated and compressed pills of quinine. Assigned to G. C. Caldwell, Ph. D., Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. XII. Granular effervescent salts, fluid citrate of magnesia, seidlitz powders. Assigned to W. G. Tucker, M. D., College of Pharmacy. Albany, N. Y. In addition to the chemists engaged in making these investigations it was found necessary to secure the services of two competent persons to gather the samples, and A. L. Colby, Ph. B., of New York, and T. Delap Smith, M. D., of Broadalbin, Fulton county, were appointed inspectors. C. E. Munsell, Ph. B., of New York, was subsequently appointed an inspector, and to him was assigned the work of visiting the dairy regions, collecting information in regard to milk, and making analysis of samples. Albert L. Colby, Ph. B., was requested to make a supplementary report on sugar. Samples of food and drugs have been purchased from time to time and distributed among the analysts for examination, and the committee has the satisfaction of presenting herewith detailed reports embodying the results of this work. GROUP I. Milk, fresh and condensed, was referred toC. F. Chandler, Ph. D.. with whom was afterwards associated C. E. Munsell, Ph. B. The first part of the report is devoted to the composition of pure milk, and the most common frauds, which consist of watering, or skimming, or both. The frauds in milk differ from those of most other articles of food, in that pure milk varies in its composition in a very marked degree, making it impossible to establish a standard of purity, except by selecting the poorest milk produced by healthy cows for this purpose. As the frauds consist generally in increasing the amount of water, or diminishing the amount of fat (skimming) the chemist can by his examination decide only whether the frauds practiced have reduced the original milk below the standard adopted. The report then details the investigations by which the standard has been fixed. The minimum specific gravity of 1.029, which has long been the standard in Europe, was confirmed by the examination of nearly one thousand cows in New York State, New Jersey and Connecticut. The maximum specific gravity was 1.0394 or 136 on the lactometer, the milk being from an Alderney cow. The lactometer employed, therefore, is the one in use in Europe on which 0 stands for the specific gravity, 1.000 or that of water, and 100 stands for that of 1.029 which is the specific gravity of the poorest normal milk from healthy cows. Thirtyeight analyses of pure milk were made by C. E. Munsell, and twelve more are quoted which were made by Elwyn Waller, Ph. D. The standard adopted by the English Society of Public Analysts and the New York City Board of Health is confirmed and adopted in this report. It is for the poorest milk from a healthy cow. From the examination of commercial milk it appears that the sophistications of this article of food are extremely common. While a large proportion of the milk sold has been but moderately watered and skimmed and is still above the standard of the poorest milk, much of the milk has been extended and skimmed far below this standard. So openly are these frauds practiced that "Creameries" have been established in many localities, the names and locations of 73 such establishments being known to the writers, of which 63 are known to send skimmed milk to New York city, all of which is sold as whole (pure) milk on its arrival. Special attention was paid to the use of brewers' grains as food for cows. It is found that when these grains are used in moderate proportions with good pasture or hay, etc., and the cows are properly cared for, no evil results occur either in the quality of the milk or the condition of the animals. The excessive use, however, of this food has a very bad effect on the cows. The condensed milk, as served to customers in New York city, was carefully analyzed and found to be unobjectionable, and of good strength, except in one or two cases, where the small percentage of fat showed that the milk must have been partially skimmed before it was condensed. GROUP II AND XI. To Professor G. C. Caldwell's care were submitted Group II, butter, etc.; and Group XI, gelatine and sugar-coated and compressed pills of quinine. Forty samples of butter were examined: Of these, one appeared to be a mixture of butter and oleomargarine, one was adulterated with |