5o6 Biochcmical News, Notes and Comment [Mar. 



Institute of Technology, has become the editor of the Journal of 

 the American Public Health Association, succeeding Dr. Burt R. 

 Rickards. 



Dr. George B, Shattuck has retired from the active editorial 

 management of the Boston Medical and Stirgical Journal after a 

 Service of thirty-one years. 



Miscellaneous notes. Sodium benzoate: a correction. The 

 Journal of the American Medical Association has lately commented 

 as follows (Jan. 20, p. 199) on its previous discussion of the expert 

 opinion of the Royal Scientific Deputation for Medical AfTairs re- 

 garding the use of benzoic acid and its salts for the preservation of 

 food : " We were not justified in concluding that the criticism of the 

 Royal Scientific Deputation for Medical Affairs referred to the 

 whole of the work done by the Referee Board. The Journal has 

 no desire to be unfair in any comments it may make on the benzoate 

 of soda controversy and it regrets the error that was made in this 

 particular. At the same time we believe that the attitude of the 

 American Medical Association on the question of the use of sodium 

 benzoate in food is the correct one, and we shall continue to protest 

 against the use of this chemical as a food preservative. And we 

 again call attention to the fact that while the Prussian scientists 

 accepted, at their face value, the findings of the Referee Board, they 

 reached the following conclusion in their own report : ' The Scien- 

 tific Deputation for Medical Affairs is likewise of the opinion that 

 the use of benzoic acid and benzoic acid salts for the preservation 

 of food should not be permitted.' And when all is said and done 

 this, of course, is the nub of the whole question." 



Sodium benzoate: a judicial decision. Some time ago the ben- 

 zoated products of several manufacturers of prepared foods were 

 barred from Indiana by the State Board of Health. The ground 

 of objection was their content of benzoate or benzoic acid. The 

 food manufacturers applied for a federal restraining order, on the 

 plea that benzoate and benzoic acid in " small amounts " are harm- 

 less. The Master in Chancery, who heard the case, recently re- 

 ported adversely to the manufacturers. Apparently his finding was 

 based on the conviction that the manufacturers failed to show the 



