43^ Biochemical News, Notes and Comment [June-September 



A thin film of dye will be removed almost instantly, but the re- 

 moval of masses of org. material requires longer treatment, F. C. 

 Mathers: Chemist-Analyst, 191 5, no. 13, p. 10. 



Food notes. Bork acid proscribed. Constitutionality of the 

 111. pure-food law, prohibiting, in effect, sale of food preservatives 

 containing boric acid, was upheld, June 21, by the U. S. Supreme 

 Court. Justice Hughes stated, for the court, that the law must be 

 upheld as valid unless the defendant shows there is no doubt that 

 boric acid is wholesome, which, the court held, he had failed to do. 



Diet treatment of pellagra. An arrangement has been entered 

 into between the U. S. Pub.-Health Serv. and the Epworth Orphan- 

 age, Columbia, S. C, for the application of the diet treatment of 

 Pellagra among the children, in the orphanage, afflicted with the dis- 

 ease. The Service will prescribe the diet and furnish the protein 

 portions of it. All necessary facilities will be given the gov't officials 

 in this work. 



John Barleycorn on the run. Physicians favor prohihition. 

 The Acad. of Med., Edmonton, Alberta, has adopted the following 

 temperance resol. : That the Acad. of Med., City of Edmonton, 

 favors Prohibition in the Province of Alberta and endorses the pro- 

 posed liquor act for the suppression of the liquor traffic in Alberta, 

 Can. 



" Fine old whiskey" as danger ous as the cheap raw product. 

 The Weekly Bulletin of the N. Y. State Health Dep't quotes from 

 the summary of the Investigation concerning the physiological as- 

 pects of the liquor problem, by Dr. J. S. Billings, which was pre- 

 pared for the Commit. of Fifty, showing that the common idea, that 

 a large degree of the injury to health from the use of alcoholic 

 drinks is caused by injurious substances in the liquor, such as fusel 

 oil and furfurol, which have not been properly removed, is errone- 

 ous, as is also the notion that cheap liquors contain larger quantities 

 of such ingredients than others. The injurious effects of the fusel 

 oil are trifling in comparison with those of the ethyl alcohol. The 

 general conclusion is that " fine old brandies and whiskies " are 

 nearly as likely to produce ill effects as the cheaper varieties of the 

 present time, if taken in the same quantities; and that the injurious 

 effect is in proportion to the ethyl alcohol contained. Jour. Anier. 

 Med. Assoc., 1915, Ixv, p. 885. 



