282 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



unfair, to displace Dr. Wiley and throw scorn on his work. 

 It is to be regretted that at times the attacks seem to have met 

 with partial success but the writer has frequently heard it stated 

 that Dr. Wiley has every citizen of the United States at his 

 back and it may be hoped that nothing will happen to mar 

 his efforts ; he certainly has the well-wishes of all who are 

 interested in securing the supply of pure food in this and other 

 countries. 



Legislation similar to that operative in America has been 

 enacted recently in France, though of a less sweeping character ; 

 nor indeed was such necessary and this may be said to be the 

 case in Britain also. Care must always be taken, in fact, to 

 discriminate between practices which are either fraudulent or 

 injurious and those for which it may be claimed that they effect 

 improvements of natural products. Nothing is more fallacious 

 than the idea that Nature is in any way perfect, particularly 

 when we misapply her products. Our foodstuffs— such as 

 wheat, for example — can scarcely be held to have been created 

 solely for the purpose of bread-making and it is nonsensical 

 to look upon any single material such as wheat as a perfect food 

 for man : it is indeed surprising that this view should be so 

 largely supported. 



Bleaching of Flour 



Dr. Hamill's first report deals mainly with the bleaching of 

 flour and the addition to it of various chemicals — so-called 

 " improvers ": it will be desirable to examine it in some detail. 



Bleaching of flour has been very generally practised both in 

 this country and abroad, during several years past. No secret 

 has been made of the practice and in the majority of cases the 

 baker has been fully aware that he was buying bleached flour. 

 From time to time objections have been raised to the practice; 

 these were brought to a head in December 1908, when the 

 United States prohibited the use of bleached flour and again 

 when, in this country, it was sought to invalidate one of the 

 patents relating to flour bleaching on the ground that the 

 practice was against the public interest. Expert evidence on 

 either side was heard at great length during the trial ; eventually 

 Mr. Justice Warrington gave judgment in favour of the process 

 and decided that the allegation of injury had not been proved. 



