In Graz, Austria, the European Rotogravure Association (ERA) held a conference where several companies presented new developments in the printing industry including the latest…
Abstract
In Graz, Austria, the European Rotogravure Association (ERA) held a conference where several companies presented new developments in the printing industry including the latest developments in the field of water‐based ink systems. This paper discusses water‐based inks for gravure printing.
In October, 1902, the Secretary of the Mineral Water Bottle Exchange and Trade Protection Society addressed a letter to the Clerk of the London County Council stating that aerated…
Abstract
In October, 1902, the Secretary of the Mineral Water Bottle Exchange and Trade Protection Society addressed a letter to the Clerk of the London County Council stating that aerated and mineral waters are, in many instances, manufactured under insanitary conditions, and suggesting that the Council should take action in the matter. The Public Health Committee of the Council thereupon directed that a number of premises where aerated waters are manufactured should be inspected, and, in February, 1903, Dr. Shirley Murphy, the Medical Officer to the Council, presented a report drawn up by Dr. Hamer, the Assistant Medical Officer, by whom the inspections ordered were carried out. Dr. Hamer came to the conclusion that it was most desirable in the interests of the consumer that the manufacture of aerated waters in London should be regulated and controlled. The quantity of aerated water sold in London is very large, and Dr. Hamer's inspection of numerous premises showed that there are many possible sources of dangerous contamination of the water used during the process of the manufacture. We are in a position to state that Dr. Hamer was thoroughly justified in drawing the conclusions which appear in his report. The enormous growth in popularity during recent years of aerated and mineral waters, while unquestionably fraught with a most important influence for good, has brought a number of firms into existence who manufacture more or less inferior and, in some instances, positively injurious and dangerous waters, and who place their products on the market at “cutting” prices, with the result that the honest and careful manufacturer on the one hand, and the public on the other, are made to suffer. Unfair “competition” of the kind referred to exists, of course, in every trade, and only by the authoritative approval of the good and, by implication, the authoritative condemnation of the bad, can such “competition” be effectively checked. But where the health of the consumer is directly threatened or affected, as it particularly is by the supply of inferior or actually injurious aerated waters, the necessity for adequate regulation and control is immediately obvious. The matter cannot be dealt with under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts. It is not one involving analysis only but, so far as analysis is concerned, the provisions of the Acts make it impossible to carry out the analytical investigations that would be required. In addition to the official registration of all manufacturers of mineral and aerated waters, a combination of inspection and analysis by an authoritative bedy of some kind, or by a recognised individual authority, is necessary to supply a sufficient guarantee to the public and efficient protection to the manufacturer and vendor of pure and high‐class waters.
The institution of food and cookery exhibitions and the dissemination of practical knowledge with respect to cookery by means of lectures and demonstrations are excellent things…
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The institution of food and cookery exhibitions and the dissemination of practical knowledge with respect to cookery by means of lectures and demonstrations are excellent things in their way. But while it is important that better and more scientific attention should be generally given to the preparation of food for the table, it must be admitted to be at least equally important to insure that the food before it comes into the hands of the expert cook shall be free from adulteration, and as far as possible from impurity,—that it should be, in fact, of the quality expected. Protection up to a certain point and in certain directions is afforded to the consumer by penal enactments, and hitherto the general public have been disposed to believe that those enactments are in their nature and in their application such as to guarantee a fairly general supply of articles of tolerable quality. The adulteration laws, however, while absolutely necessary for the purpose of holding many forms of fraud in check, and particularly for keeping them within certain bounds, cannot afford any guarantees of superior, or even of good, quality. Except in rare instances, even those who control the supply of articles of food to large public and private establishments fail to take steps to assure themselves that the nature and quality of the goods supplied to them are what they are represented to be. The sophisticator and adulterator are always with us. The temptations to undersell and to misrepresent seem to be so strong that firms and individuals from whom far better things might reasonably be expected fall away from the right path with deplorable facility, and seek to save themselves, should they by chance be brought to book, by forms of quibbling and wriggling which are in themselves sufficient to show the moral rottenness which can be brought about by an insatiable lust for gain. There is, unfortunately, cheating to be met with at every turn, and it behoves at least those who control the purchase and the cooking of food on the large scale to do what they can to insure the supply to them of articles which have not been tampered with, and which are in all respects of proper quality, both by insisting on being furnished with sufficiently authoritative guarantees by the vendors, and by themselves causing the application of reasonably frequent scientific checks upon the quality of the goods.
As our readers are well aware THE BRITISH FOOD JOURNAL has invariably supported any legitimate effort having for its object the improvement, in one form or another, of the…
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As our readers are well aware THE BRITISH FOOD JOURNAL has invariably supported any legitimate effort having for its object the improvement, in one form or another, of the national food supply, and so long as the methods adopted are fair and above‐board this journal will continue to support such efforts by whomsoever they may be made. Fair and proper methods, however, are not always adopted, and a circular has recently been forwarded to us which affords an illustration of the fact.
We have reprinted the powerful letter addressed to the Daily Mail by MR. H. W. WILSON, the author of “Ironclads in Action,” advocating the immediate adoption of a policy of…
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We have reprinted the powerful letter addressed to the Daily Mail by MR. H. W. WILSON, the author of “Ironclads in Action,” advocating the immediate adoption of a policy of reprisals for the Zeppelin murder raids. In our view it is the duty of every journal, whatever may be its raison d'être, to assist in keeping the attention of the public fixed upon this matter, to aid in preventing the general feeling of disgust and indignation from cooling down, and to support those who have the brains to understand the nature of the Hun in their efforts to compel the Government to adopt the most effective means at present available to put an end to the murderous excursions of the German vermin into this country. As MR. WILSON points out, the deliberate Hun policy of slaying women, children and non‐combatants is either permitted by the laws of war recognised by civilised nations or it is not permitted by those laws. If it is permitted, “then clearly the Power which refrains from making similar attacks on the enemy's towns, villages, and residential districts, loses greatly from the military standpoint.” If it is not permitted then the only course— “the force behind the laws of War”—is a policy of drastic reprisals. Moreover, it is the only course that the Hun can understand. The methods of “frightfulness” are definitely laid down in the German military system as methods to be ruthlessly followed whenever this can be done with impunity and the fear of reprisals is also definitely laid down as the only consideration which is to be allowed to operate as a check upn “frightfulness.” “The Power which fails to take reprisals when a great offence is committed is as the negligent judge or the faithless jury that acquits a murderer. It sins against humanity … it encourages the criminal in his crime.”
Whatever views may be held with regard to the question of the total prohibition or otherwise of chemical preservatives in foods, there can be little doubt that the broad theory…
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Whatever views may be held with regard to the question of the total prohibition or otherwise of chemical preservatives in foods, there can be little doubt that the broad theory underlying the recommendations of the Departmental Committee is perfectly, sound and consonant with the best interests of the public and the honest manufacturer. The use of chemical preservatives of any kind is undesirable, and if permitted at all, such preservatives should be restricted to substances which are not foreign to the human body. Referring to the various articles and letters which have recently appeared in The Times, Professor F. Gowland Hopkins, D.Sc., F.R.S., F.I.C., observes:—
There is a certain type of British trader who, with pharisaic unction, lifts up his voice and deplores the unhappy condition of “the heathen in his blindness,” including all…
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There is a certain type of British trader who, with pharisaic unction, lifts up his voice and deplores the unhappy condition of “the heathen in his blindness,” including all persons of other nationalities and any of his own who may happen to differ in opinion from himself. On these collectively it is his habit to bestow his contemptuous regard when from his elevated position he condescends to thank Providence that as far as the methods and conduct of business are concerned he is “not as other men.” Of course, most people recognise that the attitude assumed by this type of person is one for which it is difficult altogether to blame him. Born as he was in an atmosphere reeking with traditions of insular supremacy, and nurtured from his youth up on notions of commercial arrogance, it is no miracle that he arrives at maturity with singularly inflated ideas of the greatness of his powers and person. If there is one thing more than another in which he feels particular pride it is the possession of a superabundant stock of what he is pleased to call “business acumen,” and to hear him, it might be imagined that no one could approach him in enterprise and general commercial ability.
EVERY method employed by librar ns to bring books to the notice of readers may be justified It is thus desirable to devote an occasional issue of THE LIBRARY WORLD to this…
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EVERY method employed by librar ns to bring books to the notice of readers may be justified It is thus desirable to devote an occasional issue of THE LIBRARY WORLD to this attractive subject. Our writers take differing views, but there is always a single aim in their work: to bring right book and reader into acquaintance. We might have to meet the challenge, which indeed one of our writers implies, that such book display may deflect the Library from its original, rightful purpose. Until these terms are defined such a challenge is a begging of the question. Often we have mentioned the question, For what public is the public library working? Was it intended to serve as an auxiliary, and then an extension, of the official education system? It has always indeed been more and less than that. Our founders were able to argue that libraries would withdraw men from beer and ill‐company, but from the first they probably failed to do that, and made their appeal to the intelligent elements in the community. As they developed and public education waxed, there grew up an enormous literature, available in early years in small quantity, the aim of which was entertainment only, and there survived—there survives still—a notion which was based on an earlier conception of books, that to read was somehow educative and virtuous, whatever was read. Librarians hold this notion in some measure to‐day, although the recent success of twopenny libraries which are mainly devoted to the entertainment type of literature must have made them revise the view somewhat.
The action taken by the Council of the British Medical Association in promoting a Bill to reconstitute the Local Government Board will, it is to be hoped, receive the strong…
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The action taken by the Council of the British Medical Association in promoting a Bill to reconstitute the Local Government Board will, it is to be hoped, receive the strong support of public authorities and of all who are in any way interested in the efficient administration of the laws which, directly or indirectly, have a bearing on the health and general well‐being of the people. In the memorandum which precedes the draft of the Bill in question it is pointed out that the present “Board” is not, and probably never was, intended to be a working body for the despatch of business, that it is believed never to have met that the work of this department of State is growing in variety and importance, and that such work can only be satisfactorily transacted with the aid of persons possessing high professional qualifications, who, instead of being, as at present, merely the servants of the “Board” tendering advice only on invitation, would be able to initiate action in any direction deemed desirable. The British Medical Association have approached the matter from a medical point of view—as might naturally have been expected—and this course of action makes a somewhat weak plank in the platform of the reformers. The fourth clause of the draft of the Bill proposes that there should be four “additional” members of the Board, and that, of such additional members, one should be a barrister or solicitor, one a qualified medical officer of health, one a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and one a person experienced in the administration of the Poor‐law Acts. The work of the Local Government Board, however, is not confined to dealing with medical, engineering, and Poor‐law questions, and the presence of one or more fully‐qualified scientific experts would be absolutely necessary to secure the efficient administration of the food laws and the proper and adequate consideration of matters relating to water supply and sewage disposal. The popular notion still exists that the “doctor” is a universal scientific genius, and that, as the possessor of scientific knowledge and acumen, the next best article is the proprietor of the shop in the window of which are exhibited some three or four bottles of brilliantly‐coloured liquids inscribed with mysterious symbols. The influence of these popular ideas is to be seen in the tendency often exhibited by public authorities and even occasionally by the legislature and by Government departments to expect and call upon medical men to perform duties which neither by training nor by experience they are qualified to undertake. Medical Officers of Health of standing, and medical men of intelligence and repute are the last persons to wish to arrogate to themselves the possession of universal knowledge and capacity, and it is unfair and ridiculous to thrust work upon them which can only be properly carried out by specialists. If the Local Government Board is to be reconstituted and made a thing of life—and in the public interest it is urgently necessary that this should be done—the new department should comprise experts of the first rank in all the branches of science from which the knowledge essential for efficient administration can be drawn.
Since the publication of the report of the Lancet Commission on Brandy and the prosecutions that followed, much attention has been given to the subject, and although no great…
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Since the publication of the report of the Lancet Commission on Brandy and the prosecutions that followed, much attention has been given to the subject, and although no great additions to our knowledge of the composition of this spirit have recently been made, practical use is now being made of information which has been at our disposal for five years or more, which has already had far‐reaching effects upon the trade.