SANITARY STUDIES OF BAKING POWDERS 



I. Is aluminium absorbable from bread, and similar food prod- 

 ucts, made with alum baking powder? 



WILLIAM J. GIES 



(Biochemical Laboratory of Columbia University, at the College of Physicians 



and Surgeons, New York) 



(Received for publication, April i, 1916) 



Five years ago I published a paper, entitled " Some objections to 

 the use of alum baking powder,"^ from which the introductory para- 

 graph is quoted below: 



" During a period of about seven years I have occasionally con- 

 ducted experiments on the effects of aluminium salts. These studies 

 have convinced me that the use, in food, of alum or any other alumin- 

 ium Compound is a dangerous practice. That the aluminium ion is 

 very toxic is well known. That ' aluminized ' food yields soluble 

 aluminium Compounds to gastric juice (and stomach contents) has been 

 demonstrated. That such soluble aluminium is in part absorbed and 

 carried to all parts of the body by the blood can no longer be doubted. 

 That the organism can ' tolerate ' such treatment without sufif ering 

 harmful consequences has not been shown. It is believed that the facts 

 in this paper will give emphasis to my conviction that aluminium should 

 be excluded from food." 



Among the experiments above referred to, as having been con- 

 ducted ''during a period of about seven years," were those with 

 House,2 on seedlings, and with Steel,^ and with Kahn,** on dogs. 



1 Gies: Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc, 191 1, Ivii, p. 816. 



2House and Gies: Amer. Jour. Physiol.,i9o6,xv; Proc. Amer. Physiol. Soc, 

 1905, p. xix. (See a recent paper, on this subject, by Miyake : Jotir. Biol. Chem., 

 1916, XXV, p. 23.) 



3 Steel: Amer. Jour. Physiol., 1911, xxviii, p. 94- 



*Kahn: Biochemical Bulletin, 191 i, i, p. 235. 



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