28o SCIENCE PROGRESS 



enable us to arrive at valid conclusions on most of the issues 

 raised. But in the background we may discern a public 

 feeling, hopelessly irrational in character, against any scientific 

 interference with our food supply. In spite of all that is daily 

 said and written as to the need of introducing scientific methods 

 into manufacturing industries and daily life, in spite of the 

 vaunted modernisation of our habits, we are still dominated by 

 the conservatism which is fortunately innate in us. The intro- 

 duction of new methods, new appliances, new customs, however 

 advantageous they may be, is resisted as long as possible and 

 the national press harks back longingly to the good old times : 

 the bread of to-day, we read, is inferior to that of our youth and 

 we are urged to return to the old practices in milling and baking. 



The objection that has been taken to bleaching flour would 

 seem to be quite illogical in view of the public demand for sugar 

 coloured blue so as to counteract the yellowness which is 

 characteristic of all but the most highly refined material. 

 Colour indeed is an ethical factor of no slight importance in 

 connexion with food ; thus milk and especially butter are 

 demanded dyed yellow as proof of quality, though every one is 

 aware that both articles are naturally of a pale hue. Other 

 foods are dyed red before they are placed on the market. 



An even better example of prejudice was that afforded, some 

 time ago, in the case of the water supply of one of our northern 

 cities. Being exceptionally pure, this water was found to attack 

 the lead service pipes so that it became poisonous. It was 

 proposed to overcome the difficulty by the well-known remedy 

 of adding a little lime to harden the water. Certain objectors 

 to the proposal thereupon started a press campaign, of the usual 

 sensational character, with the popular cry that it was intended 

 to poison the water by the addition of deleterious chemicals and 

 so great was the public outcry that the scheme had to be 

 abandoned. Apparently those who protested were quite un- 

 aware of the fact that London and all towns situated in lime- 

 stone districts habitually consume water containing naturally 

 a large proportion of the " chemicals " which it was proposed to 

 add to the water in question. 



Even more illogical is the attitude towards the addition of 

 preservatives which are almost universally admitted to be harm- 

 ful and as such are forbidden by the very strictest legislation in 

 many foreign countries : in this country, the addition of boric 



