534 The Bleached Flour Decision [July 



graph by "M, C." But why do we need to go to such extremes? 

 To quote "M. C." — ^the fifth section reads: "An article shall be 

 deemed adulterated — if it contains any added poisonous or other 

 added deleterious ingredient which may r ender such article injurious 

 to health." Why not prohibit the addition of salt to the bread? 

 Stefansson teils us that, in the Arctic when he was unable to pro- 

 cure salt, he experienced dizziness and all of the cravings due to the 

 lack of a customary narcotic, but his health was far better after the 

 cravings were over, and that, on returning to civilization, salted 

 foods were decidedly distasteful to him and he had to acquire a 

 taste for them again. Certainly, if the salt taken in bread were 

 increased in amount several hundred fold, physiological disturb- 

 ances might occur, and poisonous Symptoms be observed. 



The only way we can use a law is to give it a sane interpreta- 

 tion. I do not protest against the branding of the flour " bleached," 

 That is all right ; we have a right to know what we are buying, but 

 I do protest against forbidding its inter-state transportation when 

 no harmful effects have ever been demonstratedj even by the widest 

 Stretch of Imagination. 



RoSS AlKEN GORTNER 



Carnegie Institution of Washington, 



Station for Experimental Evolution, 

 Cold Spring Harbor, L. /., N. Y. 



