do so. Nothing is more important than a proper food supply because our bodies are produced and influenced by what we eat. May each state follow the safest road of all and prohibit the use of every preservative and every other adulterant. Pleading For An Educational Campaign. By Prof. Chas. T. F. Fennel. #EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE6666€€€€€€€ Dust-yea, a whirlwind of dust is daily blown into the eyes of the American public. From whence all this dust and for what purpose? Health and happiness, physical as well as mental, do not exist in a dust laden atmosphere. Ten million people are annually laid prostrate by diphtheria, tuberculosis and scarlet fever. This woeful condition of suffering humanity is recognized everywhere and is receiving well merited attention. Physical health and happiness is exploited in thousand ways by the daily press and the popular magazines. The results accruing from these campaigns of education promise much encouragement to a continuation of the work so intelligently and persistently pursued. Can this also be said of mental health and happiness? The fact remains that mental dust blowing continues and it is indeed a sad commentary upon our prided state of civilization that permits the daily repetition of this dust blowing. The daily press as well as the popular magazines are throttled so to speak in order to keep back from the public some of the facts that the people ought to know. The great mass are deceived by being continually subjected to the tortures inflicted by misstatements in part or misrepresentations completely. Ignorance, apathy and poverty are given credit as the cause of the loss of mental health and happiness. Mental anguish is felt on all sides by the daily question "What have I put into my stomach at this meal." Foods and food adulteration strikes a responsive chord in all minds, poor or rich, owing to the fact that it touches not alone the stomach but also the pocketbook of the consumer. Willingness and ability to pay for the best that the land can produce does not insure the consumer from deception. Dust blowing has reached such a high state of perfection that the most learned and most cultured are frequently left in utter darkness. The manufacturer of coloring matter and preservatives will tell the dear public over and over again that a little is not going to hurt any one, on the contrary, that it is a good thing as it is pleasing to the eye and pleasant to the taste. Mental quietude being the natural result. Think of all the ptomaine poisons lurking in every corner, ready to devour you but for the preservatives-Pay no attention to digestion for our products are predigested and in reality you need no stomach, and consequently preservatives cannot interfere with the natural operation of digestion. The manufacturer of so-called Maple Syrup will present the most convincing arguments that glucose is just as wholesome as the genuine maple sugar. Moneyed interests with millions back of them representing manufacturers of adulterated food products always dwell upon the nutritive value Continued on page 12. Men who defend the Health of the Com- Resolutions for Next Congress. "Resolved, That the American Medical Association respectfully urge upon Congress the necessity of amending the National Pure Food and Drugs Act in the following particulars, viz: "To prohibit absolutely and unqualifiedly the use of benzoate of soda and similar preservatives in the preparation and preservation of foods destined for interstate commerce. "To provide a system of Federal inspection of all establishments engaged in the preparation of foods destined for interstate commerce, such inspection having for its specific object: "(a) The enforcement of sanitary cleanliness in such establishments." "(b) The prevention of employment in them of persons afflicted with contagious, infectious diseases." "(c) The prohibition of the use of preservatives, such as benzoate of soda." "(d) The prevention of the utilization of unclean and offensive waste materials which now by the use of such preservatives are branded as food stuffs and sent through the channels of commerce." Inasmuch as the American Institute of Homeopathy has always encouraged all efforts to preserve health through the scientific application of hygiene, and has supported all medical legislation, having for its object the prevention of disease and the improvement of personal and municipal health, Therefore, be it resolved, that it commends the efforts of Dr. Harvey W. Wiley in these directions, and especially in his efforts to prevent the use of benzoate of soda, and similar artificial preservatives, in the preparation of food stuffs and their use in the treatment of impure and partially decomposed and therefore dangerous material to be used as food, so that they can be marketed and distributed through the channels of Interstate Com merce. WHEREAS, the study of the effects of minute quantities of drugs upon the human system, by the Homeopathic School of Medicine, proves that under no circumstances, and in no quantity, can drugs be persistently introduced into the human system without deleterious effects, Therefore, be it resolved, that the American Institute of Homeopathy at its Sixty-fifth Annual Convention assembled, respectfully invites the attention of the President of the United States to the necessity of his support in all efforts for the improvement and enforcement of the National Pure Food Law, and further, it memoralizes Congress so to perfect the Pure Food Law as effectively to prevent the use of benzoate of soda and similar artificial preservatives by which impure and partially decomposed, and therefore dangerous food stuffs, can be placed upon the market and distributed. through the channels of Interstate Commerce. PERISCOPE. Practical Information for Consumers. Are you reading the label on the canned goods you are buying? Observe them critically, whether the legend, "containing 1-10 of 1 per cent. of benzoate of soda," is legibly printed. Although permissible by the National law, don't forget that you can purchase catsups, and other canned or bottled goods, free from preservatives. Preservatives in food products have been condemned by the medical profession. Accept their advice, and not the canners'. The evidence which scientific investigators have collected shows that the addition of chemical preservatives to food substances is injurious to the consumer in several different ways. The food preservatives, when taken into the body, must be eliminated subsequently, and this operation entails extra labor upon some special organs, and this labor leads to direct injury. Many of the food preservatives in common use are direct poisons, and their constant ingestion induces chronic poisoning. Continued from page 10. of these to the human economy products and evade the dollar and cents value between the genuine and adulterated product. Food adulteration is primarily for the purpose of cheapening the cost of production, solely for the benefit of the producer and to the prejudice of the consumer. It is not a question of nutritive value or wholesomeness but a question of gain solely. Competition may be keen but gold dollars are always worth one hundred cents on the dollar. Sweated or plugged gold dollars have no market value. and excite suspicion upon presentation. Food products come into the same category. The genuine article needs no apology but the adulterated article, whether colored, preserved or enhanced in appearance always shows the footprints of previous wear. It is not ignorance or apathy on the part of the American public that insures the financial success to the adulterator but poverty that forces the great mass of American public to accept inferior goods at prices somewhat cheaper than the genuine article and much above their real value. Let there be a campaign of education as to the dollar and cents value of these inferior food products and the American public will soon demand a gold dollar of one hundred cent value. Dust blowing will cease and all will enjoy good sight. SANITARY MAXIMS Issued by the Committee of Food Investigation of the Consumer's League of New York City. "My plea is, in order to secure pure food in the Dr. WILEY. DIRT, DANGER, DISEASE. "Clean water, clean food, clean streets, clean houses, keep us healthy." Buy only clean, fresh food. Refuse to take food handled by dirty hands. Insist upon its being well wrapped. Paper bags are best. Buy only the purest candies. Are the cakes and candies pure and clean that your children buy from the push cart? Do not buy decayed food because it is cheap. Do not buy bread and cake at dirty bakeries. Look into the baking rooms, if possible. Are they clean? Examine the packages of cereals for worms before cooking. Packages of long standing often become infested with worms, and are sometimes found at the best stores. Does your grocer keep his butter and milk in clean, cold places, and are they covered? Does he keep his candies, figs, dates, shelled nuts, berries, lettuce, bread, etc., exposed to flies and dust from the street and from prowling cats and dogs? Flies and bugs carry dirt and disease to food. Are your grocer and butcher and baker cleanly in person? Are their clerks cleanly? Urge them to keep their fruit and vegetables off the sidewalk. There is danger of disease in street dirt. Ask the delicatessen storekeeper and the push-cart man to keep their eatables covered. Refuse to buy food sold in open buckets which stand uncovered in the store day after day. FISH, FLESH AND FOWL. Select a reliable tradesman, as you would select a reliable physician. The cleanest and purest food is cheapest in the end. Buy only fresh fish. It should have red gills, and be firm, with moist and bright scales, clear eyes, and be rigid when handled. Stale fish is flabby, has scales dull, eyes sunken, covered with film, and a bad odor about the gills. Lobsters and crabs should be purchased alive. Do not eat oysters in May, June, July or August. They are best in the months with the "r." Clams may be eaten throughout the year. All shell fish should smell fresh, and the shells should close firmly when put in water or touched with the finger. Buy only fresh meat. Beef should be a rosy-red color, yellowish-white fat, firm, elastic and scarcely moist when touched with the finger. Cook it well. Do not buy wet, flabby beef that is pink or purple. Good lamb and mutton is firm, close grained and light red, with fat white and hard. Fresh veal is pale red, with firm, white fat. Bad veal is soft, mushy and bluish tinged. Good pork is solid, pure white fat, pink flesh. Cook it thoroughly. Reject yellow, soft pork. Make your own sausages, if possible. Much of the sausage meat we buy is preserved by chemicals, because fresh meat so readily spoils. Do not eat raw meat of any kind. Cooking kills germs if they are present. Cook thoroughly all meats, especially Hamburg-steak and pork. Do not let cats and dogs come near meat. Canned meats must be free from molds and a greenish hue when opened. If the top of the can is raised in the center, the meat has begun to spoil and should not be eaten. Buy only poultry that is firm to the touch, has pink or yellow color, with fresh odor and strong, unbroken skin. Stale poultry is flabby, bluish-green on the crop and abdomen, has bad odor and skin is easily pulled apart. IN THE KITCHEN. Keep all food covered in ice-box or cupboard. A paper bag is easily slipped over a pitcher or a platter of food to protect it. Save your clean paper bags. Keep your ice-box clean and filled with ice, if possible. It prevents decay of the food. Do not stand the ice-box near a sink or toilet. Do not Do not leave food standing around in kitchen or living room. stand it in a sink or washtub. Keep your garbage pail clean and covered, and do not stand it near the ice-box, or where you keep food, Protect all food from flies. Wash thoroughly all meat, fish, vegetables and fruit before using. |