112 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
The spices on the market are almost always pure. Even 
ground coffee, if mixed with cereals or chicory, has a statement 
to that effect on the label. Corn flour is not substituted for 
wheat nor for buckwheat flour. There is little sale of preserva- 
tives for food. Oysters are shipped in sealed containers, iced 
on the outside, so that we get solid and not floated oysters. 
Extracts correspond in composition to the label. Condensed 
milk is not sold as condensed cream. Foods that are arti- 
ficially colored or flavored with synthetic products are so 
labeled. What has a decade not wrought! 
With reference to the water supply, Federal and state au- 
thorities have taken over the supervision of the water fur- 
nished to cities and towns, and the people have been protected— 
(1) From contractors or engineers who would install water 
works in localities where the supply was unsatisfactory in 
quantity or quality, or at unwarranted expense. 
(2) By having the water supply regularly tested by com- 
petent chemists and bacteriologists, instead of depending on 
the dangerous and ever-changing water from their own private 
wells. 
(3) By having the water sold by private companies care- 
fully analyzed to guard the consumers against contamination. 
(4) By having the water furnished on railway trains tested 
for its purity. 
(5) By a scientific investigation of the sewage problem 
for each locality and by advice as to the best practical method 
for getting rid of sewage and garbage. 
And what, you ask, is the next step forward? Continue by 
practice and precept to educate the people; for public opinion 
will go far towards correcting the abuses that still exist in these 
matters. The co-operation and help of the people are always 
the chief factors in the success of such a movement. Laws 
against impure food and bad water are at best but the crystal- 
lized sentiment of the people against unwholesome and fraudu- 
lent products. 
For the proper enforcement of these laws, a live Board of 
Health or Commission, absolutely unhampered by politics, or 
