70 THE JOURNAI. OF PHARMACOLOGY. 



The So-called Danger from the Use of Boric Rcid in 



Preserved Foods.* 



By Dr. Oscar Liebreich 



{Continued from March number.^ 



The conclusion of The Lancet itself was as follows : "As will be seen 

 from these communications there is considerable diversity of opinion as to 

 whether antiseptics in the quantities used for preserving food are injurious 

 to health, and also whether legislation could satisfactorily deal with the 

 subject, although on the whole the conclusion appears to be not altogether 

 unfavorable to the use of preservatives with certain restrictions. The 

 majority agree in one thing, and that is that should the practice be toler- 

 ated it should be placed under some control, so that, for instance, where 

 the addition of antiseptics is practised it should be mentioned to the pur- 

 chaser. Very few of our correspondents, it is important to note, are able 

 to quote cases within their experience of injury to health having been 

 caused by preservatives in food." 



One can be certain that if medical men of the standing of Dr. Lauder, 

 Brunton and others had been able to satisfy themselves that the small 

 quantities of antiseptics necessary possessed even a trace of injurious in- 

 fluence, they would at once have concluded it was altogether better to en- 

 tirely forbid the preservation of food. From the researches of this com- 

 mission it can also be inferred that the authorities referred to held that it 

 was better to preserve food with these small and non-injurious quantities 

 of antiseptics than that any section of the public should be obliged to eat 

 decomposing food, regarding the injurious nature of which no doubt ex- 

 ists. Dr. Annett quotes Binswanger also incorrectly. More extensive 

 quotation would have clearly shown that as the result of his investiga- 

 tions Binswanger held that small doses of boric acid exercised not only no 

 injurious action but so little action whatever that it was practically inert. 

 These misquotations have already been corrected in my pamphlet, but it 

 seems to me necessary to refer to one more important point. 



Dr. Annett himself draws attention to the fact that the only direct in- 

 stance of the injurious action on man of boric acid when added to milk is 

 that recorded by Dr. A. R. Robinson f and referred to by Dr. Annett in 

 the following words : " Five of the seven inmates of a certain house be- 

 came suddenly ill after partaking of blanc-mange which had been made 

 from milk of the previous day, to which, as was confessed, the dairyman 

 supplying it had already added boric acid and to which the cook had 

 added a further quantity to preserve it over night. Nine fowls fed liber- 

 ally with the blanc-mange became ill, five dying." From such a descrip- 



* Lancet, London. 



t Public Health, August, 1899. 



