530 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



is true that a nation cannot advance and science cannot 

 advance in the midst of starvation ; an abundance of food and 

 clothing and other necessities of life are alike indispensable to 

 material, intellectual and spiritual progress ; an excess of these 

 good things, however, is almost as injurious as a deficiency. 



There is another index of national welfare which appears 

 to me to be more certain and that is morality. That science 

 has an intimate relation to morality may be a new doctrine 

 to preach but it is not new to science. The men who have 

 been great lights in the scientific world have been men of 

 unimpeachable morality ; they have been men who could not 

 possibly do a wrong thing knowingly. Hence it was evident 

 that sooner or later scientific investigation would come closely 

 into touch with public morality. This particular tendency of 

 scientific investigation is the one which has been operative in 

 securing the enactment of the food and drug law of the United 

 States. It was by the investigations of scientists that attention 

 was directed to the fraudulent representations made in regard 

 to the characters of foods and drugs in the United States and 

 to the sophistication to which they were subjected. A number 

 of the sciences collaborated in this work ; notable among them 

 were chemistry, pharmacy, botany and microscopy. The con- 

 ditions which obtained in the United States were perhaps no 

 different from those in other countries, hence it will be un- 

 necessary to go into great detail. 



At the time the Food and Drug Act became law, on the last 

 day of June, 1906, the following practices prevailed to a large 

 extent in the United States :— 



1. It was quite customary to call food and drug products 

 of an inferior character by the name of the superior article. 



2. It was quite customary to sell a different article under 

 the name of the real one. 



3. It was a common custom to add various substances of 

 the nature of a drug to foods, either to colour them or to 

 preserve them from decay. 



4. It was a common practice to abstract, in whole or in 

 part, some of the valuable ingredients of an article without 

 changing its name. 



5. It was a common custom to mix together an article of 

 a higher value with one of a lower value and call the mixture 

 by the name of the article of the higher value. 



