Arthur Hill Hassall, physician & sanitary reformer : a short history of his work in public hygiene, and of movement against the adulteration of food and drugs / [Edwy Godwin Clayton].
- Clayton, Edwy Godwin.
- Date:
- 1908
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Arthur Hill Hassall, physician & sanitary reformer : a short history of his work in public hygiene, and of movement against the adulteration of food and drugs / [Edwy Godwin Clayton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![ing sentence occurs : “ Indeed, it is not too much to say that it is primarily to the scientific skill and benevolent zeal of Mr. Postgate that we owe the existing laws against the adulteration of food and drugs. It was in January, 1854, that Mr. Postgate first commenced his crusade against this evil in a letter to the late Mr. Scho[le]field,” etc. The claim thus made is one which cannot be sustained. The scientific work of the detec- tion and exposure of adulteration, as set forth in the Reports, was commenced in the Lancet three years before the date on which the claim of Mr. Postgate is stated to have been founded. Of the first Parlia- mentary Committee, which sat in 1855, to inquire into the subject of adulteration, Dr. Hassall was THE CHIEF ADVISER, AS ALSO THE PRINCIPAL WITNESS, the Lancet reports furnishing the basis and groundwork of the Committee’s inquiries. Such, stated in as few words as possible, are the actual facts and circum- stances, and it was therefore impossible for us to allow the claim advanced on behalf of Mr. Postgate to pass unnoticed. Mr. Postgate, no doubt, used his influence at an advanced period of the inquiry with Mr. Scho[le]field in furtherance of useful legislation, and thus far he is entitled to credit and praise.’ — Lancet, i88r, vol. ii., p. 638.1 With some of his coadjutors in the crusade against adulteration. Dr. Hassall at one time had to bear much unmerited abuse and obloquy, arising in some quarters from a desire to maintain the status quo ante, and in others from motives of rivalry and jealousy, etc. It will have been gathered, moreover, that efforts were not wanting to appro- priate the credit due to him.^ But he ‘stuck to his guns,’ and for at least thirty-eight years had the satisfaction to know that his claims were admitted, and that his work was generally acknowledged to have been the leading factor in * The capitals in this e.xtract are inserted by the writer of the present memoir. See ante, pp. 26, 27.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28989995_0056.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
