No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 26 



the food pioduc'iujj: capabilities of this country do not suflice in all 

 particulars for tho needs of its popiilatiou. Under these circumstances 

 the total prohibition of preserving methods would clearly be likely to 

 be attended with serious results to the public health, in that large 

 quantities of food possessing highly nutritive value might in effect 

 either be withheld from the poorer classes, or be liable to be con- 

 sumed by them in a condition of incipient putrefaction." 



In other words, owing to the fact, that Great Britain is compelled 

 to import from distant countries much of her perishable food supply, 

 therefore, she is, iu a sense, compelled to permit the limited use of 

 some preservative, believed by the medical profession to be injurious 

 to health, as the least of two evils. 



That this a fair presentation of their attitude, is shown from their 

 permission of the use of boric acid in cream, but not in milk. Of milk 

 they have a sufficient supply, but not of cream. I quote the state- 

 ment of the Committee: 



"In regard to cream, the question is somewhat different. We are 

 of opinion that, wider present conditions^ it would be difficult to 

 maintain or increase the present supply of cream, without the use of 

 some preserving agent. The presence of some preserving agent is 

 less ohjectionahle in cream than in milk, because cream is usually 

 consumed in much smaller quantities than milk; but inasmuch as 

 cream is now often prescribed for invalids and children instead of cod 

 liver oil, we consider that the ohligation should he laid on the vender 

 of cream of notifying the presence^ nature and quantity of tJie preser- 

 vati/ve.'''' 



The present conditions that exi^st in Great Britain, do not exist in 

 the United States. We supph' ourselves with these articles of food, 

 which the British people find it necessary to import, consequently we 

 are in position to insist that the foods offered in our markets shall 

 all be pure, not only such as are to be offered to the unfortunates, 

 who from inheritance or indulgence have weak digestions, but to all 

 of our people irrespective of their physical condition. 



If the Commission had been dealing wath conditions, such as obtain 

 in Pennsylvania, it would, unquestionably, have prohibited the use 

 of chemical preservatives, without exception. 



The declaration of the high authorities, whose testimony and con- 

 clusions I have quoted at some length, should, in the absence of posi- 

 tive evidence of the harmlessness of any particular antiseptic or food 

 preservative, have great weight in controlling the action of the food 

 authorities, who are entrusted with the enforcement of laws, for the 

 protection of the public health. It certainly is the duty of these 

 officials, to construe the laws as strictly as their provisions warrant, 

 rather than by a too liberal interpretation, to throw open the mar- 

 kets, to foods drugged by dealers who know nothing of the effects of 

 3 



