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benzoate a serious disturbance of physiologic equilibrium. The development of certain metabolic products is frankly admitted-another evidence of profound systematic disturbance. A distinct effect of benzoate on the stomach and intestines is conceded-a potent cause of dyspepsia, diarrhoea and general

ill health.

MILK ADULTERATION AUTHORIZED.

We shudder when we consider that under the permission of this board's findings, the milk intended for defenseless infants may now be medicated without limit by this drug, so far as our national law is concerned. Then, when we consider the increased activity of the benzoate in acid media, we wonder why, instead of unqualified license, at least one word of warning was not uttered against its use in cider, and especially in fruit syrups now extensively consumed at soda fountains by the general public and that are being increasingly used in the sick room by convalescents struggling for health.

SOME SECONDARY EFFECTS OF BENZOATE.

Now it would seem that if this board had been made up of pharmacologists it doubtless would have interpreted these conceded primary effects at least somewhat in the light of their necessary after effects. This interpretation would of course have been based on the assumption that the active cause, the benzoate, was indefinately and indiscriminately continued under the present license of the government promulgated on the advice of these referen

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persistently supresses normal gas formation suppresses normal fermentation and tends to lay the foundation for permanent loss of function. It would have been mentioned, as it was not mentioned that any irritant swallowed three times. a day with persistent regularity for a long time must inevitably induce permanent organic change in the stomach and bowels. It would have been emphasized, as it was not even mentioned, that the development of abnormal metabolic products in the excretions means abnormal tissue waste and that abnormal tissue waste means inevitable impairment of strength and efficiency.

THE SELF CONDEMNATION OF THE REPORT.

If now we even ignore the many things that this report would conceal and confine ourselves only to the things it has been forced to reveal we can not but be astonished that the referees who framed it so far ignored the force of their own evidence as to recommend an acquittal of benzoate of soda as an offender under the law. The entire weight of their report is to the contrary effect and force me to reply to my initial interrogatories as follows:

First-The questions submitted by the government to the referees covered the whole ground.

Second-The experiments, so far as indicated by the report, were not made by the members of the Referee Board of Scientific Experts, nor even under their constant personal supervision.

Third-The experiments themselves (a) were not conducted with sufficient care to give them scientific precision as a whole; (b) they were not sufficiently comprehensive to comprise an answer to the questions submitted by the government; (c) they were not recorded with sufficient freedom from bias to entitle them to public confidence.

Fourth-The recorded facts, taken at
Continued on page 25.

HEALTH FACTS

AND

HEALTH GEMS.

An eminent scientific authority who recently appeared before a Senatorial committee in Washington stated that there were each day in the year no less than 2,000 preventable deaths. In other words, the nation loses each year ciose to three-quarters of a million persons whose deaths are not only preventable, but a direct loss to the country in point of production of an equivalent of $6,000,000.

This vast sum would represent the interest on government bonds to the value of $180,000,000, a sum 30 per cent in excess of what the Spanish

American War cost us and nine times the value we paid Spain for the Philip pine Islands.

Startling figures these, and yet they epresent what we sacrifice every year so lightly and unnecessarily.

There have been sporadic attempts at sanitation and the destruction of disease, and at the present time San Francisco is warring mightily against the rat as a carrier of the bubonic plague, while New York has in the past year been watching her food supply with such vigilance that she has condemned and destroyed $6,000,000

worth of unfit edibles.

New Orleans has been during three years making a war on the yellow fever mosquito, while Philadelphia's chief concern at this time is her water supply. Chicago is gravely considering a plan for the extermination of the housefly, and so it goes with the cities. The crying need, however, is national movement, not sporadic skirmishes, for the enemy of disease is firmly intrenched, and, while the chem

ist and the physician may recommend, they can not force results. Those can only come through education.

The importance of the food supply upon the national health is one that can not be too deeply impressed upon

us.

There is no more prolific source of bodily disorder than the things we take into our stomach, and consequently, if we are, as many hope, eventually to win our lifelong battle against the evils that beset us on every hand, we must take active measures.

Too long has mankind merely accepted conditions as they seem to exist. Because an intolerable condition is apparent we have been prone to regard it as irreparable and to bow our heads beneath its yoke.

Slowly, very slowly, the human race is learning that much can be done, and while the way is long and the path a rough one, there is no good. reason why we should not build us a new popular highway, smooth and easy riding, to health.

Within the past three years eminent investigators have insisted that if the people of this country should make one whole-hearted, concerted effort, tuberculosis-that dread scourge that annually wipes out ten per cent. of our population-could be absolutely eradicated in five years' time.

In consequence of all this, Professor Metchnikoff concludes that old age may be combatted in two ways:

First. By taking all practicable measures for keeping deleterious bacteria out of the body, and

Second. By taking measures to com

bat and kill those that are already breathing the animal absorbs a great there.

Under the first head one discovers all of the familiar schemes for keeping food clean and pure-boiling, preserving, washing, etc.

Professor Metchnikoff advises that raw fruits be removed from the bill of fare. Their surfaces, he says, are always alive with microbes, which, when they reach the intestines, multiply enormously and send forth danerous poisons. As laxatives and foods fruits are very valuable, but they should be cooked before eating.

Prof. Metchnikoff has now a large following of French people who refuse. to eat fruit unless it has been cooked or washed in sterilized water. Toilet water is only considered safe after having been boiled two or three times, and even bathing water, it is now said, should be boiled.

Every new suggestion made by the distinguished Russian scientist is taken

up

and adopted without question in the hope that by doing exactly what Professor Metchnikoff advises it will be possible to postpone old age and to live to enjoy life for 250 years.

Servants who wait at table are now instructed to wear gloves which after each meal are boiled and dried by hot air in order to avoid all risk of contamination to the food. Bakers, cooks, butchers and others who handle food in large quantities are being urged to immerse their hands and arms in alcohol after washing with soap and boiling water.

Fresh milk is under suspicion because, even if the cow is not suffering from tuberculosis, its milk is apt to have been contaminated by the hands. of the milkmaid. So the milkmaid is being advised to wear sterilized gloves while milking the cow.

There are new rules, too, for the milk cow. In its food and while

many "bad" microbes, and these, it is declared, have a harmful effect on the milk.

The cow's mouth has been declared a "veritable hotbed of microbes," and the necessity of regularly cleaning it and scrubbing its teeth with a toothbrush is being urged.

The good old fashion of opening your morning mail at the breakfast table has been condemned by Professor Metchnikoff as insanitary and dangerous to the health. The letters have passed through many hands and have been in contact with many other letters in the mail carrier's pouch, in the post office and in the mail bag, and there is no knowing how many different colonies of harmful germs they have encountered and mingled with during their travels.

So you are running a certain risk in handling your letters at the breakfast table and the advocates of the new

hygiene advise keeping the morning mail out of the dining room altogether and favor our having the letters thoroughly sterilized before they are han

dled at all.

An ingenious little letter box has already been invented for sterilizing mail deposited therein. The letter box is fastened on the inside of the front door and there is a letter slot in the door through which the mail carrier drops the letters.

Inside the box, which contains a sterilizing apparatus, the swarming millions of microbes which went in with the letters meet a speedy and painless death, and the mail can then be handled with safety.

The fashion of turning up the trousers at the botton. has been condemned. The turned up crease around the leg has been found to accumulate dust and disease germs, which are taken into your home and turned loose when the

trousers are shaken or brushed.

Professor Metchnikoff has prohibited the eating of raw fruits in his own home. He reconnends the eating of stewed fruit, as it is palatable, wholesome and is sterilized by boiling.

Grapes and grape seeds, he declares, should never be eaten at all. The only proper use to make of grapes, he says, is to put them through a press, sterilize the grape juice and drink that.

"Grape skins, Professor Metchnikoff says, "are covered with a fine dust which is a hotbed for deadly microbes. Washing the grapes is merely a farce. I have seen grapes plucked from the vine, washed and placed on the table to be eaten that way. The person who deliberately puts a grape of that kind into his mouth is in peril of death from a dozen different dis

eases. 1 have examined grapes microscopically to find billions of the most deadly microbes swarming over the skins.

"The only way in which grapes may be eaten in comparative safety is first to throw them into boiling water and scald them until all danger from the microbes is removed. Then the grapes must be squeezed and the seeds removed. Only the juice should be used. Eating grapes is suicidal, and to give them to a child is a crime."

Continued from page 22.

their face value, do not justify the conclusions embodied in the report and consequently do not justify the recommendations that the government naturally accepted in its faith in these referees to grant a license for the unlimited use of benzoate of soda in the food of the American people.

STATE OF OHIO

OFFICE OF DAIRY AND FOOD COMMISSIONER

COLUMBUS

September 30, 1909.

To Oyster Dealers and Others Concerned:

Your attention is hereby directed to the law covering the shipment and sale of oysters in Ohio. The law reads as follows:

"Section 3. An article shall be deemed to be adulterated within the meaning of this act:

(b) In the case of food: (1) If any substance or substances have been mixed with it, so as to lower or depreciate or injuriously affect its quality, strength or purity; (2) if any inferior or cheaper substance or substances have been substituted wholly, or in part, for it."

The addition of ice or water to shucked oysters is an adulteration and unlawful. Jobbers and dealers are hereby instructed not to accept from the packers shucked oysters to which ice or water has been added, and retailers are cautioned not to add ice to oysters nor dilute them with water.

The trade will be given until October 15th to adjust its business to comply with this law.

Yours very truly,

RENICK W. DUNLAP, Comissioner.

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MISBRANDING OF LEMON, RASPBERRY AND STRAWBERRY EXTR.
Dwight-Edwards Company, Portland, Oregon, fined $75.00.
The facts in the case were as follows:

On October 31, 1907, an inspector of the United States Departme culture purchased from W. A. Sprague, Nampa, Idaho, a sample of a food labeled, "Pine Bur Flavoring Extract, Lemon, Dwight-Edwards Portland, Oregon." This sample was part of a shipment made by t Edwards Company from Portland, Oregon, to W. A. Sprague, Nampa September 20, 1907. The sample was subjected to analysis in the Chemistry, United States Department of Agriculture, and it was fo contained only 1.62 per cent of oil of lemon, 3.38 per cent less than the recognized lemon extract.

It was apparent that it was not lemon extract, and the statement i was therefore false, misleading, and deceptive.

On September 25, 1907, an inspector of the Department of Agric chased from Worden's Grocery, Missoula, Montana, two samples of ducts, one of which was labeled,"2 Ounces. Full Weight. Edward able Pure Extract of Strawberry. Dwight-Edwards Company, Port gon," and the other, "2 Ounces. Full Weight. Edwards' Depend Extract Raspberry. Dwight-Edwards Company, Portland, Oregon. two samples were a part of a shipment made by the Dwight-Edwards. from Portland, Oregon, to Worden's Grocery, Missoula, Montana, or 1907. Each of the samples was analyzed in the Bureau of Chemist States Department of Agriculture, and was found to be an imitation fl ficially colored. The statements on the labels were therefore false, r

and deceptive.

The Secretary of Agriculture having afforded the Dwight-Edwards opportunity to show any fault or error in the aforesaid analysis, and failed to do so, the facts were duly reported to the Attorney-General a referred to the United States attorney for the district of Oregon who fi formation against the said Dwight-Edwards Company, with the resul court imposed a fine of $25.00 for each of their offenses.

MISBRANDING OF CANNED PEACHES, PLUMS, PEARS AND APRICOT:

(Underweight.)

The facts of the case were as follows:

On or about January 27, 1909, an inspector of the Department of Agriculture found in the possession of the Witwer Brothers Company, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 150 cases of canned fruit, each case containing 24 cans, labeled as above stated. The goods had been shipped by the California Canneries Company of San Francisco, Cal., to the Witwer Brothers Company, on or about September 1, 1908. A representative number of the cans was weighed by the inspector and the average

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