Notwithstanding the fragmented text at the beginning, the coherent part of the text appears to be a legal document, likely an ordinance related to food and drugs. Here is the proofread text in HTML format:
# Ordinance Text
22. If the defendant in any prosecution under this Ordinance prove to the satisfaction of the Magistrate or Court that he had purchased the article in question as the same in nature, substance, and quality as that demanded of him by the prosecutor, and with a written warranty to that effect, that he had no reason to believe at the time when he sold it that the article was otherwise, and that he sold it in the same state as when he purchased it, he shall be discharged from the prosecution.
23. Any person who shall forge, or shall utter knowing it to be forged for the purposes of this Ordinance, any certificate or any writing purporting to contain a warranty, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and shall be punishable on conviction before the Supreme Court by imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years with or without hard labour.
Every person who shall wilfully apply to an article of food, or a drug, in any proceedings under this Ordinance, a certificate of warranty given in relation to any other article or drug, shall be guilty of an offence under this Ordinance, and be liable, upon summary conviction before a Magistrate, to a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars and in default of payment thereof to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months with or without hard labour.
Every person who shall give a false warranty in writing to any purchaser in respect of an article of food or a drug sold by him as principal or agent, shall be guilty of an offence under this Ordinance, and be liable, on summary conviction before a Magistrate, to a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars and in default of payment thereof to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months with or without hard labour.
Every person who shall wilfully give a label with any article sold by him, which shall falsely describe the article sold, shall be guilty of an offence against this Ordinance and be liable, on summary conviction before a Magistrate, to a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars and in default of payment thereof to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months with or without hard labour.
24. Nothing in this Ordinance contained shall affect the power of proceeding by indictment, or take away any other remedy against any offender under this Ordinance, or in any way interfere with contracts and bargains between individuals and the rights and remedies belonging thereto. Provided that in any action brought by any person for a breach of contract on the sale of any article of food or of any drug, such person may recover alone or in addition to any other damages recoverable by him the amount of any penalty in which he may have been convicted under this Ordinance, together with the costs incurred by him in and about his defence thereto, if he prove that the article or drug, the subject of such conviction, was sold to him as and for an article or drug of the same nature, substance, and quality as that which was demanded of him, and that he purchased it not knowing it to be otherwise, and afterwards sold it in the same state in which he purchased it; the defendant in such action being nevertheless at liberty to prove that the conviction was wrongful or that the amount of costs claimed is unreasonable.
25. The Governor shall have power, upon receiving such evidence as to fitness as he shall in his absolute discretion deem sufficient, to appoint any person under his hand to be an analyst for the purposes of this Ordinance. Such an appointment shall be published in the Government Gazette, and the production of such Gazette containing a notice of such appointment shall be sufficient evidence of such appointment in any Court of law.
26. In all prosecutions under this Ordinance, and notwithstanding the provisions of section eighteen hereof, the summons to appear before a Magistrate shall be served upon the person charged with violating the provisions of this Ordinance within a reasonable time, and, in the case of a perishable article, not exceeding twenty-eight days from the time of the purchase from such person for test purposes of the food or drug, for the sale of which in contravention to the terms of this Ordinance the seller is rendered liable to prosecution, and particulars of the offence or offences against this Ordinance of which the...
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