Abstract
EVER since the proposal was first made that disputed cases under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act should be referred to the analysts of the Board of Inland Revenue as adjudicators, there has been a strong feeling in the minds of most persons competent to form an opinion on the subject, that should such a course be ultimately adopted, the probable results would be great dissatisfaction on all sides. It was foreseen that the gentlemen most meritoriously engaged at Somerset House in testing the strength of alcoholic liquors, in examining the genuineness or otherwise of tobacco, tea, and excisable articles generally, and such like pursuits, would have great cause for complaint if work out of their ordinary department were thrust upon them, in the performance of which, even if no discredit should accrue to them by mistakes almost unavoidable in inexperienced hands, a considerable amount of professional odium would be probably incurred. It was clearly evident that the Public Analysts would be unjustly dealt with by the establishment of a system whereby the reports of men, frequently well known in the scientific world, and of great skill and experience in the special work requisite, would be liable to be superseded by those furnished by Government employés of far less professional and scientific standing, and specially qualified to a much lower extent. Finally, it was anticipated that a considerable injury to the public at large would be imminent, from the high probability that such an arrangement would lead to results not at all in harmony with the object of the Act. The checks on adulteration, it was feared, would be greatly diminished, partly through the bringing into more or less discredit the analysts appointed under the Act, and thus rendering their existence a far less effectual moral deterrent; and partly through the probable resignation of the higher class of analysts, and hence through the deprivation of the public of the special skill and experience acquired by these gentlemen.
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Somerset House and the Public Analysts . Nature 13, 242–243 (1876). https://doi.org/10.1038/013242a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/013242a0