OLEOM AKttARINE. 



773 



its palatability, and, second, its nutritive properties. You need not try 

 to convince human beings that palatability is not an element in nutri- 

 tion, because it is, and yet you get a great deal more out of a food if it 

 is palatable in its taste and attractive in its appearance, because the 

 attitude of the digestive organs changes absolutely with the appear- 

 ance of the food. If you were to put butter up in the form of ink it 

 might be just as digestible, and all that, and yet it would not be so 

 useful as a food. The appearance of a food has a great deal to do with 

 the attitude of the digestive organs toward it. 



A MEMBER. It is simply a reflex action from it? 



Dr. WILEY (continuing). Yes; because the mind, the mental atti- 

 tude, influences the secretion of the ferments which produce the diges- 

 tion, and hence we must have some regard to that appearance. 



Representative WILLIAMS. That is so true, Professor, is it not, that 

 sometimes when a person takes a prejudice against a particular article 

 of food it will make him vomit if he attempts to eat it? 



Dr. WILEY. That is very often the case. That is due to his mental 

 attitude. We all have our idiosyncrasies. 



I would like to say that we have studied in the Department of Agri- 

 culture for seventeen years, since I have been the chief chemist of that 

 Department, the subject of food adulteration; and, among others, this 

 substitution of oleomargarine for butter is one of the chief items of study 

 which we have undertaken. My own personal attitude is perfectly 

 well-known. I think that anyone who sells an article for what it is not 

 is obtaining money under false pretenses. I believe it is a crime, a 

 criminal ofl'ense; and I believe that the sale of oleomargarine as butter 

 is a criminal offense, and should be prosecuted as such. The Commis- 

 sioner of Internal Revenue says he gets the money out of it. That is 

 very well from his point of view; he said he did not execute the law 

 from the pure-food point of view. But what we want is a law which 

 will be executed from the pure-food point of view, so that the man who 

 offends not only has to pay the tax, but has to pay the penalty for 

 offending against the criminal code. 



Representative WILLIAMS. Have you read this Grout billf 



Dr. WILEY. Yes, sir. 



Representative WILLIAMS. Is there anything in the Grout bill which 

 executes the law, from the pure-food standpoint, any better than any 

 existing legislation? 



Dr. WILEY. Of course, I am not lawyer enough to give an opinion 

 in respect to that; but what I want to call to your attention on this 

 point is this matter of color. 



Now, I am not a prohibitionist in regard to color. I think if people 

 want to color their food with harmless materials it is perfectly proper 

 that they should do so, provided the purchaser understands in buying 

 a food that he is buying an artificially colored one, and let him be the 

 judge. If he wants the artificially colored article, all right. 



I sent out just a few weeks ago into the markets of this town to buy 

 some oleomargarine and butter. I also got a piece of white silk. 1 

 took the samples of oleomargarine and butter which I got, took about 

 the amount which one would use in an ordinary meal, and I dyed this 

 silk with the coloring matter which these samples contained. I could 

 not find on the markets of this town a sample of uncolored butter, nor 

 of uncolored oleomargarine; but I did find this that instead of secur- 

 ing uniformity by coloring butter we get the greatest disparity in 

 appearance. 



One argument which has been advanced in support of coloring butter 



