strong of Rochester, N. Y., was duly received, and I have the honor to advise you as follows:

Among the provisions of Chapter 219 of the Public Statutes, section 5128 provides for a licensee of the fourth class to sell intoxicating liquors by the wholesale to retail licensees. Among the classes of retail licensees are those who may sell intoxicating liquors in liquor stores at retail, 1, 2, and 6 "to be drunk on the premises," and 2 and 7 "not to be drunk on the premises," all plainly contemplating the sale of such liquors for use as a beverage; therefore, the liquors sold by the fourth class licensee are in the contemplation of the law, sold to be used for such purpose.

Section 5132 provides for the examination as to their purity and strength of all liquors to be sold by such fourth class licensees. No. 130, Acts of 1908 forbids the sale by retail licensees of any liquors not examined and approved by the directors of the State Laboratory of Hygiene under the provisions of Public Statutes 5132. The result of this is that no liquors can be sold by any licensee not purchased from a holder of a fourth class license.

The evident purpose of all this legislation is to prohibit entirely the sale of inferior, impure and adulterated intoxicating liquors for use as drink. It is common knowledge that one article included in the definition of intoxicating liquors, is whiskey. This common knowledge makes the law so.

State vs. Munger, 15 Vt. 290.

State vs. Labounty, 63 Vt. 374.

Therefore, the foregoing legislation applies to the sale of whiskey as a

drink.

How, under the law, shall the quality of whiskey, offered for sale as a drink, be determined? By P. S. 5467, "all medicines and preparations recognized in the United States Pharmacopoeia . . . . for internal or external use," are drugs. Whiskey is one of the medicines and preparations recognized in the United States Pharmacopoeia for internal use, and is, therefore, a drug.

By the same Public Statutes 5467, "the word 'food' shall include all articles. . . . used for . . . . drink . . . . by man or beast." It is common knowledge that whiskey used for drink by man, and this common knowledge makes the law include whiskey in the statutory class, "food." Public Statute 5476 imposes upon the State Board of Health the duty of adopting "such rules as it deems necessary . . . for the . . .

examination of . . . . foods. . . . . In order to determine whether a given article is inferior, impure or adulterated, there must be some standard description of the article with which it does or does not conform. Therefore, as the basis for the examination of a sample of whiskey as an article of food, i.e. an article used for drink, the State Board must determine what qualities the article shall possess to be whiskey. The

rule by which this is to be determined is, "such as it [the State Board of Health] deems necessary." The result is, that when a sample of whiskey is offered for examination by an applicant for a fourth class license to sell the same to retail licensees, it is offered for examination as an article of food, and if it does not meet the requirements adopted by the State Board of Health for the examination of whiskey as an article of food, in that "any substance has been mixed . . . . with it so as to reduce or lower or injuriously affect its quality or strength; or any substance has been substituted wholly or in part for the article; or any valuable constituent of the article has been wholly or in part abstracted; or if it is mixed, colored. or stained in a manner whereby damage

or inferiority is concealed," (P. S. 5468) it is not free from adulteration prohibited in Chapter 133 as amended by No. 131, Acts of 1908.

I answer your inquiry in the negative. In arriving at this conclusion I have considered carefully the remarks and brief of Hon. William W. Armstrong in behalf of the Duffy Malt Whiskey Company presented at the hearing before me at my office in Montpelier, the 26th inst.

I am

Very truly yours,

JOHN G. SARGENT,

Attorney General.

Entered October 21, 1901, as second-class matter, Post Office at Brattleboro, Vt. under act of Congress of July 16, 1894.

CONTENTS.

Pure Food and Drugs, by George M. Kober, M. D., LL. D., Professor of Hygiene, School of Medicine, Georgetown University, Washington, D. C..

3

Vital Statistics, by Cressy L. Wilbur, M. D., Chief Statistician, Bureau of the Census, Washington

24

Notes on Vermont Waters, by C. P. Moat, Chemist
Specimens Examined at the Laboratory of Hygiene During Third
Quarter, July, August and September, 1909

34

News Items

BRATTLEBORO, VT.

RULES OF HEALTH.

(From "Poor Richard's Almanack," by Benjamin Franklin).

Eat and drink such an exact quantity as the constitution of thy body allows of, in reference to the services of the mind.

They that study much ought not to eat as much as they that work hard, their digestion being not so good.

The exact quantity and quality being found out is to be kept to constantly.

Excess in all other things whatever, as well as in meat and drink, is also to be avoided.

Youth, age and sick require a different quantity.

And so those of contrary complexions; for that which is too much for a phlegmatic man, is not sufficient for a choleric.

The measure of food ought to be (as much as possibly may be) exactly proportionable to the quality and condition of the stomach, because the stomach digests it.

That quantity that is sufficient, the stomach can perfectly concoct and digest, and it sufficeth the due nourishment of the body.

A greater quantity of some things may be eaten than of others, some being of lighter digestion than others.

The difficulty lies in finding out an exact measure; but eat for necessity, not pleasure: for lust knows not where necessity ends.

Wouldst thou enjoy a long life, a healthy body, and a vigorous mind, and be acquainted also with the wonderful works of God, labor in the first place to bring thy appetite to reason.

PURE FOOD AND DRUGS.

BY GEORGE M. KOBER, M. D., LL. D., PROFESSOR OF HYGIENE, SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, WASHINGTON, D. C.

The chief objects of food, according to Professor Atwater, are to form the material of the body and repair its wastes, and to yield heat to keep the body warm, and muscular and other power for the work it has to do. The human body is made up of about 60 per cent of water, 19 per cent of protein compounds, 15 per cent of fats, and 6 per cent of mineral salts, all of which are sooner or later consumed, involving certain expenditures, which must be covered if health and life are to be preserved. It seems quite unnecessary to insist that, apart from “accessory foods" which stimulate digestion and assimilation, only such foodstuffs should be introduced as actually enter into the composition of the body or serve a physiological purpose.

When we consider the complex and delicate structures of the human organism, especially of the individual body cell, we will be in a position to appreciate that the food should be pure and free from injurious ingredients. When it complies with these prerequisites, it cannot fail to influence the growth and development of the child, but also the health, power of endurance and resistance in the adult. Indeed pure and wholesome food often plays the most important if not decisive rôle in the treatment of the sick. These general facts and ethical considerations have been the keynote in the campaign for pure food. It is very evident that this crusade would never have been necessary if it had not been for the greed and ignorance of unscrupulous dealers who have profited by the fraudulent manufacture and sale of adulterated and misbranded food. Nor would the question of chemical food preservatives have ever come into prominence if certain manufacturers and canners had not found it profitable to inflict upon the public by such methods inferior and deteriorated articles of food. The subject is by no means of recent origin since some of the sanitary rules of the Middle Ages relate to adulterated food. Indeed it may be said that the world in this respect is really getting better.

PURE FOOD LEGISLATION.

The first movement towards securing comprehensive legislation against the adulteration of foods in this country was made in 1879. This is all the more surprising because Dr. Mann, in his "Medical Sketches of 1812," remarks that "the bread on the Niagara was made of damaged flour, such as was either not nutritious or absolutely deleterious. It was believed also that the flour contained in some instances an earthy substance, and that this adulterating substance was plaster-of-paris." Again, during the Civil War, as early as the winter of 1861-62, an extract of coffee furnished the