WHY NOT pay the same attention to inward, as you do to outward cleanliness? "WAGNER'S" The Representative Artificial Mineral Waters They are pure. clean, wholesome and the only waters in the market of the same composition as that of the respective natural springs. DRINK "WAGNER'S WATERS" ONLY! Recommended and used by the Medical Profession. Examinations by our State Chemist of the Lithia Waters in the market have established the fact that "Wagner's Lithia" is the only water which contains Lithia. All others were denounced as worthless and misbranded. Selters, Lithia, Vichy, Carlsbad, Kissingen, Hunyadi, Enis, Carbonated Sodium Phosphate, etc., etc. "SNAP" The only pure and wholesome Ginger Ale in the market, free from saccharin, capsicum and preservatives. "MINNEHAHA"-America's purest table water. W. T. WAGNER'S SONS, 1920-1926 Race St.. CINCINNATI, O. Approved by National and State Pure PUBLISHED MONTHLY. No. 2. The wise and good should endeavor to teach the masses whatever will contribute to their health and happiness. The government should aim to control the passions of the inconsiderate members of society by such laws and regulations as will best tend to produce those results. Laws to be respected and generally 1002 Second National Bank Building, obeyed, must commend themselves CINCINNATI, O. Articles on Pure Foods and Drugs should be addressed to the Editor not later than the 15th of each month, signed by the author. Advertising rates furnished on application. Annual Subscription $2.00. Dr. J. N. Garfunkle, Editor and Manager. Mr. Fred. L. Hoffman, Associate Editor. FEBRUARY, 1909. It is essential that people should encourage and foster only those habits which tend to promote virtue in industry. Society is only safe while its members are industrious, healthy and virtuous. Men do not generally wish to do what will either injure themselves or others, but it must be admitted that society is destroying itself by allowing habits and practices which tend to produce unhappiness and illness. For these evils are as truly the manufactured products of society, as are boots, broadcloth or other fabrics. It is therefore clearly the interest and duty of every citizen to regulate his own conduct, that he may not only preserve his own honor and integrity, but that he may help to establish and extend like virtues throughout society. to and obtain the approbation of good men, and these laws, to do this, must favor natural justice and tend to promote industrial morality. In the opinion of a very large and intelligent class of persons of the United States, Great Britain, Germany and elsewhere, it is a very fatal and deplorable mistake for any government to allow any of its citizens to manufacture and to sell deleterious food stuffs and drugs; and the only safe and true policy is to prohibit both their manufacture and sale. The general prosperity of the country is much more important than the prosperity of a privileged class of manufacturers of adulterated food stuffs. Justice expects a doctor to exercise his knowledge, at the time of being consulted, to help the sick. Viewed commercially his knowledge. represents an article sold for which he is compensated. The attorney at law is expected to advise his client correctly. The architect is expected to supervise the building according to a certain building code, and if either of them misrepresent to gain a selfish motive, they are by law responsible and their license may be revoked. Just so should manufacturers of goods, as well as the purveyors of same be held responsible for selling impure products to the innocent pub- ufacturers began abusing Dr. Wiley, lic. Huge packing houses scattered over the nation's land, have gobbled up the God given products and under a pretense of scarcity have deliberately been depriving its citizens of their natural rights in "the consumption of the abundance of fruits and vegetables in their natural state." But what of the enacted Pure Food and Drug Laws, the fruit of these living champions whose manifest motive, for the benefit of the Nation's health, is assailed by representatives who are selling a people's rights. Man profits nothing in gaining the whole world, if by so doing he lose his own soul. Building a bank account at the expense of his character, means -losing his all (his manhood). Dr. Wiley is the Chief Chemist of the Agricultural Department, and has been for some time. It is his duty to examine food preparations to determine whether they are in accordance with the Pure Food Law. That is to say, Dr. Wiley is supposed to ascertain by chemical analysis whether a given preparation contains harmful matter, contrary to the provision of an act of congress, fixing a punishment for any person who manufactures and sells adulterated foods or preparations containing ingredients detrimental to health. In the course of his duties Dr. Wiley found a good many products put up by manufacturers, which contained benzoate of soda, which has been used as a preservative. Dr. Wiley claimed that benzoate of soda is injurious; that foods preserved with it were not wholesome and an order was issued to the effect that manufacturers using this preservative should be prosecuted under the Pure Food Law. The man they said he did not know what he was talking about; that benzoate of soda was harmless, and that they could not preserve foods without it. A number of manufacturers however do preserve foods without it, and so state on the label of their cans, but others claim it is impossible and they are trying to have Dr. Wiley dismissed from the service. A commission was appointed to pass upon the question of whether benzoate of soda is harmful when taken internally. The manufacturers naturally had a great deal to do with the appointment of the commission by the President. In fact. the President virtually gave the manufacturers permission to go ahead with the use of benzoate until the commission reported. The commission have reported, and as expected, the report is to the effect that benzoate is harmless. Without knowing anything whatever about benzoate the average layman is likely to accept Dr. Wiley's side of the matter. Whatever may be said about the doctor no one ever accused him of being dishonest. He has no purpose in making a false statement about the matter. It would be easier for him-he would save himself a good deal of trouble-had he decided that the manufacturer had a right to use the benzoate of soda for food purposes. Perhaps he could become rich by so stating; nor do we cast any reflection upon the commission. It, too, may be honest, although it could not be as unbiased as is Dr. Wiley. In our belief the use of benzoate of soda should not be allowed in food products, not only because it is injurious to health, but because the use of chemical preservatives encourages the use of poor and unfit raw materials. Benzoate of soda has no quality which entitles it to any place as a food product. Dr. Zwick's article in this issue was intended for our January number, but omitted for want of space. That the label must not lie is the lesson which the Pure Food, and Drug Acts teach. We have always known that a man who sells goods under false representations is liable for deceit or fraud, but we have been in the habit of applying this rule to cases where the representations were made orally. We did not stop to consider that a false representation could be made by means of a label as well as by a salesman. A representation, however, is always actionable if made under the following conditions: 1st. The representation must be false. 2d. It must be made with a knowledge of its falsity or in reckless disregard of whether it is true or false. 3d. It must have been made with the intention that it should be acted upon. 4th. It must have been acted upon. 5th. It must have caused damage to the person so acting upon it. When a label does not tell the truth it is a false representation. The manufacturer knows when he puts the label on that it is false, or else he is acting in reckless disregard of whether it is true or false. He puts the label on with the intention of inducing the consumer to act upon it, and if the consumer does buy the article he is damaged either because he buys one thing thinking it is another, or because he buys an article which he is led to believe is not injurious to health, when in fact it is injurious. In all such cases the burden of proof is upon the complainant and in all criminal cases he is bound to prove these different matters beyond a reasonable doubt. In most cases the consumer, buying in small quantities, is injured to such a small extent that it does not pay him to prosecute the offender. It would cost him many times the price of the article to have it analyzed in order to prove either the falsity of the label or the injuriousness of the article itself, and consequently few, if any, such prosecutions have been instituted by private individuals. This right has existed from time immemorial and could have been exercised long before Pure Food and Drug Laws were thought of, but as is generally the case when a nation or state finds that its people individually are either unwilling or unable to protect themselves from their fellow men, it will inevitably sooner or later give to its citizens the protection they need. Such is the purpose of the Pure Food and Drug Laws. They relieve the individual of the necessity of proving beyond a reasonable doubt the five pre-requisites as stated above. The National Law only requires the Government to prove that the label does not tell the truth. It makes no difference under this law whether the manufacturer knew or ought to have known that the label was false. It makes no difference whether it was labeled falsely to induce the sale. or not, nor does it make any difference whether any one is injured or suffers damage by relying upon the label telling the truth. If it is false that is enough to insure conviction. The label is the written evidence of the charge. In many matters the law is very lenient both as to its requirements, as well as to the punishment. For instance, unless the article is deleterious to health, as in the case of a drug containing cocaine, morphine, chloroform, etc., it does not require that the label shall state the ingredients or substances of which it is composed, but it does insist that when a statement on the label is made as to the nature, weight or contents of a package, that that statement must be absolutely correct. It is also true that the law permits the imposing of a fine which in many cases has been the minimum, but in both of these respects there is no doubt but that in the near future the man who falsified his label will find the law a stern parent, and although the ways of deceit are devious, yet a lie will always find them out and they will soon learn that it is more profitable to obey the law than to violate it. PROTESTING THE USE OF Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. Dear Sir-As Editor of The American Pure Food and Drug Journal, published in this city, devoted solely to the purpose of assisting in the enforcement of the Nation's Pure Food and Drug Laws, I desire to protest in the interest of the readers of our Journal regarding the overruling as to the use of benzoate of soda. I wish to state that cocaine, opium, morphia-acetate, carbolic acid and other drugs in minute quantities are without a doubt injurious to health, and it is also admitted and conceded that they are deadly to the human economy. Minute quantities are destructive, predisposing some sort of derangements internally, not known to doc tors. Large quantities of these drugs cause death. Did this commission of experts believe in their own hearts that benzoate of soda is necessary to be partaken in foods? We doubt very much if these esteemed gentlemen would eat a pie, a can of pineapple or meats of any kind had they previously known the fact that benzoate is one of the ingredients found in them. It is true, perhaps, that benzoate in minute quantities is not destructive, but not at all needed either in healthy human stomachs nor healthy fresh fruits or other food stuffs which are to be canned. Benzoate of soda is a preservative to be used for for partly decomposed food stuffs in canning. The Pure Food and Drug Law, as enacted, protects the public from impure and adulterated foods, therefore, there is no need of benzoate of soda, but for medicinal purposes. The commission appointed by the President did not seem to consider how much good benzoate of soda will do for the public, but how beneficial for the manufacturer. The ruling of the chief of Bureau of Chemistry, in our opinion, should be sustained, because his interest is but to promote Pure Foods for the conservation of the Nation's health. Benzoate of soda is derived from benzoic acid, benzoic acid is added to a hot concentrated solution of pure sodium carbonate until effervescence ceases. The solution is evaporated, cooled and allowed to crystallize, or preferably evaporated to dryness and granulated. The yield of granulated salt is about one and one-third times the quantity of benzoate acid used. Benzoate of soda is odorless, artificially sweetish, astringent in taste. Benzoic acid, from which benzoate of soda is obtained, is an organic acid obtained from benzoin by sublima |