318 WILEY— INFLUENCE OF PRESERVATIVES [April 25, 



As in the case of boric acid, salicylic acid, and sulphurous acid, 

 this injury manifests itself in a number of different ways, both in 

 the production of unfavorable symptoms and in the disturbance of 

 metabolism. These injurious effects are evident in the medical and 

 clinical data which show grave disturbances of digestion, attended 

 by phenomena which are clearly indicative of irritation, nausea, 

 headache, and in a few cases vomiting. These symptoms were not 

 only well marked, but they were produced upon healthy individuals 

 receiving good and nourishing food and living under proper sani- 

 tary conditions. It is only fair to conclude, therefore, that under 

 similar conditions of administration of benzoic acid or benzoate of 

 soda in the case of weaker systems, or less resistant conditions of 

 health, much more serious and lasting injury would be produced. 



It was also noticed that the administration of benzoic acid and 

 benzoate of soda was attended with a distinct loss of weight, indica- 

 tive of either a disturbance of assimilation or an increased activity 

 in those processes of the body which result in destruction of tissue. 

 The production of a loss of weight in cases of this kind must be 

 regarded as indicative of injurious effects. 



The influence of the benzoic acid and benzoate of soda upon 

 metabolism was never of a character indicative of a favorable change 

 therein. While often the metabolic changes were not strongly 

 marked, such changes as were established were of an injurious 

 nature. It is evident that the administration of these bodies, there- 

 fore, in the food tends to derange metabolism in an injurious way. 



An important fact in connection with the administration of these 

 bodies is found in the efforts which nature makes to eliminate them 

 from the system. In so far as possible the benzoic acid is converted 

 into hippuric acid. There is a tendency usually manifested, how- 

 ever, to retain the benzoic acid in the body for a notable length of 

 time, and this is much more marked in the case of benzoate of soda 

 than in the case of benzoic acid. 



While the administration of both these bodies, therefore, is 

 undoubtedly harmful, the injurious effects are produced more rap- 

 idly in the case of benzoic acid than they are in the case of benzoate 

 of soda ; the data, however, will show that the total harmful effect 

 produced in the end is practically the same in both cases, hence there 



