456 BOARD OF AGRICULTUKE. 



which passed the law, but no heed was taken. In 1901 the State Board 

 of Health again brought to the attention of the Legislature the fact that 

 the food law remained dead upon the statute books because of a lack of 

 a laboratory and an appropriation. A bill was presented, which provided 

 for the creation of a laboratory in the State House at Indianapolis, under 

 the control and direction of the State Board, and providing $10,000 for 

 the enforcement of the pure food and drug law. Every one knows that 

 analyses must be made if adulterations are to be detected. As analyses 

 can only be made in a laboratory, and as the work must be done by 

 specialists and not by general chemists, it is plain that the public labora- 

 tory must be created or the pure food law left unenforced. 



Several members of the Legislature suggested that the laboratory 

 should be taken to Lafayette, or rather that the laboratories of Purdue 

 University should be used. This idea is obviously Impractical, because 

 the laboratories of Purdue University are teaching laboratories, and are 

 filled from morning to night with students. The professors must give all 

 of their time to teaching, and, therefore, could not undertake the work. 

 The analyses of students would not be accepted in coiurts. Unless it is 

 desired to turn the University into a police board for the enforcement of 

 the pure food law, and unless it is desired to, in a great measure, inter- 

 fere with the efficiency of the teachers and the work of the students, the 

 laboratory should not be there. If the work were imposed upon the Uni- 

 versity, the pure food law, and also the health law, would have to undergo 

 amendments, for these statutes now place the enforcement in the hands 

 of the Board of Health. Not to give the machinery for enforcement di- 

 rect to the body, which is charged with the work, would be impracticable 

 and unbusinesslike. Another point appears against the college proposi- 

 tion, and that is Lafayette is not centrally located, and time is frequently 

 an important factor in food and sanitary analyses. Indianapolis is cen- 

 trally located, and is most easily reached of any city of the State. Lafay- 

 ette can not be easily reached from considerably over half of the State, 

 except by passing through Indianapolis. This fact shows that of necessity 

 there would be considerable delay in transportation of samples and re- 

 ceiving of repoi-ts. In the aggregate this delay would be something very 

 great. Another fact which shows that such a laboratory would be deroga- 

 tory to the University appears when we remember that the analyses would 

 frequently be followed by prosecutions, and the analyst, say he was a 

 professor at Purdue, would be dragged from his teaching work to give 

 testimony in the courts in some fai- distant part of the State. 



If established at all, the laboratory should obviously be in the State 

 House _at Indianaiiolis, directly under the control of the State Board of 

 Health. It seems to me that this Association should take an active inter- 

 est in the enforcemen|: of the pure food law. The losses to the people of 

 the State on account of adulteration are something enormous, and the im- 

 moral effect is very great. 



