Analyst, PUBLIC. In the Sale of Food and Drugs Act (1875), it is enacted that certain specified local authorities may appoint one or more persons possessing competent knowledge, skill, and experience, as analysts of all articles of food and drugs sold within their district. In most of the large towns in England and Scotland, the authorities have appointed analysts; but in very many places of considerable importance this has not been done. Unfortunately the Act leaves the appointment of analysts permissive.
In section 12 of the Act, it is enacted that any purchaser of an article of food or drug in any place where there is an analyst, shall be entitled, on payment to such analyst of a sum not exceeding 10s. 6d., to have such article analysed by such analyst, and to receive from him a certificate of the result. Private individuals are generally content merely to receive the certificate, and rarely if ever take any further action. In order, therefore, that the Act should not become inoperative, and that dealers guilty of selling adulterated food might be tried and punished for the offence, inspectors were appointed, whose duty consists in going to the various shops and other places where food is sold, making purchases of the different articles therein exposed for sale, and submitting these to the public analyst for examination. If the analyst certifies that any of the substances submitted to him have been adulterated, the inspector must take steps to have the seller prosecuted. A case is prepared for trial, and if the judge is satisfied that an offence within the meaning of the Act has been committed, he convicts the accused, who is then liable in a penalty not exceeding £20. The existence of these functionaries, however, does not prevent any member of the public from purchasing any article of food and submitting it for analysis to the public analyst. Only, if it is intended to take legal action, certain formalities must be observed when making the purchase. Thus, after the material has been bought and paid for, and is in the buyer's possession, he must intimate to the seller that it has been bought for the purpose of being analysed, and he must offer to divide it. If his offer is accepted, he must then and there divide it into three portions, each of which must be sealed in the seller's presence. One of the portions so sealed is to be left with the seller, so that he may, if he be so advised, have an analysis made of it on his own account. Another portion is to be taken to the public analyst for analysis, and the third is to be retained intact till after the trial, in order that the judge may, if he deems such a course advisable, direct that it be sent for analysis to the government analysts at Somerset House. In the event of the seller not accepting the offer of the buyer to divide the material, the buyer must then carry the whole to the analyst, who will divide it into two portions, one of which he will retain, the other he will seal and return to the buyer.
Although public analysts are appointed in the first place by local authority, their appointment is not legal until it has been confirmed by one of Her Majesty's principal secretaries of state; and an analyst, when once appointed, cannot be removed without a like sanction from one of these officials. See the articles ADULTERATION and HYGIENE.