54 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



if consistent, make it a crime for any person to add vinegar to any 

 kind of food. The acid of vinegar in its pure state is, according to 

 the best authorities in therapeutics, eight times stronger than salic- 

 ylic acid in its pure state. Is it just to jDunish the men who use 

 the weaker substance and permit those who use the stronger to escape 

 \inscathed ? In all standard works on therapeutics the acids of most 

 iall fruits are considered much stronger than salicylic acid ; then if 

 we consider the one a poison we must consider the other in the same 

 degree. In their strongest condition, boric, benzoic and salicylic 

 acids are much weaker than many of the substances used daily in our 

 food, as in essences, spices, etc. No one will deny that salicylic acid ■ 

 when used in even small quantities will not only disturb digestion 

 but may actually inflame the kidneys, and in very susceptible persons 

 •may produce delirium and convulsions ; it also depresses the heart ; 

 but while we are aware of these effects regarding the use of the pure 

 acids as a preservative in prescribed quantities similar to that of acetic 

 acid, oil of smoke, etc., it would be harmful, our experience has 

 been that salicylic acid is of much value in the preservation of the 

 flavor of fruit juices, such as raspberry, strawberry, etc., from which 

 the fruit syrups are frequently made for use at soda-fountains, and in 

 other ways." 



"Our results* tend to show that if 0.3 grams be added to a quart 

 ( twenty-seven fluid ounce ) bottle of fruit juice, such as strawberry 

 or rasjjberry, it will keep this fluid retaining its flavor, etc., very much 

 better than if the fruit juice be bottled by the ordinary sterilizing 

 process without the use of salicylic acid. Fruit juice bottled in each 

 of the two ways has been kept for over a year, and then from this 

 liquid syrups have been made ; the one preserved with salicylic acid 

 has a better flavor and is in every respect a better article. Now the 

 question is. What harm may arise from the use of salicylic acid in this 

 way ? Let us estimate the quantity of salicylic acid that one would 

 obtain in an ordinary tumbler of water flavored with raspberry syrup. 

 To the half-pint tumbler let us say there would be added 50 cc. of 

 raspberry syrup, not over one-third of this having been treated with 

 salicylic acid. Therefore, as there was added to the original juice 0.3 

 grams to about 800 cc. of fluid, there would be contained about six 

 milligrams of salicylic acid. The physiological dose of this acid is 

 stated by our best authorities to be from 0.3 to 4 grams. So it would 

 be seen that it would take a gallon, at least, of the syrup to make a 

 respectable minimum dose of the preservative." 



Doctor LeWall, speaking of salicylic acid as used in some of the jel- 



* See " Use and Abuse of Food Preservatives," Year-book of Department of Agriculture, 

 1900, page 558. It should be stated in this connection that in his report Doctor Biglow gives an 

 extensive list and the composition of commercial food preservatives. 



