320 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc, 



formaldehyde, an important constituent of embalming fluid, which 

 is used by the undertakers to prepare bodies after death, to preserve 

 and keep them in a natural state for burial. In the city of 

 Allegheny, in the year 1904, Special Agent Wilcox and myself pur- 

 chased 49 samples of milk from the dealers, direct from their wagons 

 as they were delivering to customers in the city. Out of these 49 

 samples, 28 were preserved with formaldehyde — this embalming 

 fluid that I speak of, and three preserved with boric acid, and quite a 

 number of the samples were skimmed and watered and low in fat. 

 So you see that for the gain of the dollar, that the vendors in the 

 city of Allegheny were not only willing to take chances in poisoning 

 the innocent babies and invalids of that city who were forced to use 

 milk as their only nourishment, but went a step further and robbed 

 them by skimming and watering their milk. 



Doubtless many of you have gone into a drug store on a hot sum- 

 mer day to get a refreshing drink. You step up to the soda foun- 

 tain and ask for strawberry, raspberry or some other fruit flavor, 

 thinking your drink was flavored with the natural fruit of the earth, 

 when the facts were, that there was not a particle of the natural 

 fruit in it, but simply a compound, with a coal-tar dye, preserved 

 with salicylic acid and artificially flavored. One of the defendants 

 in the courts of Allegheny county entered a plea of guilty, and said 

 to his Honor, that he purchased the best syrups he could for the 

 money. The Court in reply stated that if he could not purchase 

 pure syrups to serve to his customers, he had better close down his 

 fountain. 



I also desire to speak to you in regard to some of the prepared 

 fruits that are sold under the name of strawberry, raspberry, black- 

 berry jam, etc., which contain but a very small percentage of the 

 fruit; in fact, in a great many cases our chemists were unable to find 

 even a trace of the natural fruit. These, too, were a compound of 

 some inferior and cheaper substance than the natural fruit, colored 

 with a coal-tar dye, artificially flavored and preserved with salicylic 

 or benzoic acids. 



I was informed by a traveling man, that he saw in one of our 

 western cities, carloads of apple peelmgs and cores, and when he 

 asked what they were going to do with this great amount of refuse, 

 he was told that that was part of the strawberry, raspberry, black- 

 berry and many other of the jams that he ate daily. So we might 

 go on and speak to you of the many adulterations that we have 

 found, tomato catsup, maple syrup, extracts of all flavors, shredded 

 cocoanut, and vinegar. In this connection, I might say that I have 

 purchased samples of vinegar for pure cider vinegar which did not 

 have a trace of the apple juice in it; white wine vinegar that did 

 not have a trace of the fruit in it. So I might go on and enumerate, 

 but I think I have said enough to convince you that the makers of 

 these food commodities are very little concerned about you or your 

 health or the results from eating their bad food stuffs. 



It seems to me all that concerns them is the dollar, or the profits 

 they derive from their food stuffs, and they are willing to take all 

 sorts of chances regardless of the Pure Food Laws of Pennsylvania. 

 To prove that they are very little concerned about your health or my 

 health in the sale of their production, very often it has been said 

 when samples were taken and submitted to our Chemist for analysis 



