CANNED PROVISIONS. 



CANOES, 



107 



luted, with seven pants of water, that the dan- 

 ger of poisoning by it, if it existed, must be 

 extremely remote. It was also maintained 

 that, as the statistics of the trade showed that 

 sixty million dozen cans of goods thus put up 

 were exported, if that substance was so dan- 

 gerous as it had been represented to be, it 

 would have killed millions of people. Some 

 allegations that had been made against the 

 soundness of what are called " second brands " 

 of goods were also replied to. The dealers 

 represented that while those goods were in a 

 certain sense inferior in quality to the "first 

 brands " that is, were not prepared from the 

 choice specimens they were perfectly sound 

 and just as wholesome as the u first brands." 



In connection with the discussion a letter 

 was read from Prof. John J. Reese, of Phila- 

 delphia, who had had himself some cases of 

 the character described in the papers, and had 

 always been quite at a loss to determine the 

 real cause of the " dangerous and even fatal 

 results." In one marked case of sickness, 

 after eating canned peas, he had made a chemi- 

 cal examination of the few fragments left in 

 the can, and had wholly failed to detect any 

 evidence of mineral poisons. " Besides," he 

 added, "the peculiar and profound nervous 

 symptoms can not, in my opinion, be accounted 

 for on the theory of chloride-of-zinc poison- 

 ing," which would produce only the violent 

 irritant symptoms. He remarked that similar 

 symptoms had followed the use of ice-cream 

 and cream-puffs in several cases, and suggest- 

 ed that " possibly some poisonous substance 

 is generated, similar to, if not identical with, 

 the ptomaines or alkaloids of putrefaction, 

 which have lately been claiming the attention 

 of toxicologists." 



A committee was appointed to take the sub- 

 ject into consideration, and, having conferred 

 with a similar committee representing the 

 manufacturers and dealers in canned fruits, to 

 report at some future meeting of the society. 



Dr. Thomas Stevenson, Government Toxi- 

 cological Analyst, London, has made the fol- 

 lowing statement, embodying the results of his 

 own observations on the subject, which was 

 read at a later meeting of the Medico-Legal So- 

 ciety: "Acute metallic poisoning by canned 

 provisions is not known to have certainly 

 occurred in this country, though the consump- 

 tion of those goods is enormous. It is proba- 

 ble that chronic lead-poisoning may have oc- 

 curred through contamination of the canned 

 articles, but such cases have not been recorded. 

 Now and then cases of acute poisoning occur, 

 traced to the use of canned meats ; but there 

 is every reason to believe that this has occurred 

 only where the food was tainted or bad. An 

 inquest was held in 1883 in Pimlico, a district 

 of London, where it was alleged that death 

 was due to nitrate of tin, and it is said that a 

 tin (or can) of meat was shown, from which, 

 by corrosion, tin had been removed from the 

 iron beneath; but I am not aware that any 



analysis was made confirmatory of the sup- 

 position. In February, 1884, several cases oc- 

 curred of poisoning by a tin (can) of provisions, 

 the symptoms being those of gastro-enteritis. 

 Analysis showed that the food contained traces 

 only of tin, but this is the rule in canned goods, 

 and tin-poisoning was disproved. I have been 

 Government Toxicological Analyst for thirteen 

 years, but have never myself met with acute 

 metallic poisoning by canned foods. Dr. John- 

 son arrives at very positive conclusions on al- 

 together insufficient data. His remark that 

 the faded appearance of the tomatoes is ac- 

 counted for by the chlorine in the chloride of 

 zinc, shows that he has failed to grasp the 

 chemistry of the subject on which he writes. 

 That canned goods usually contain traces of 

 tin, has been shown by several British chem- 

 ists, and is a well-established fact. That such 

 provisions do not usually produce any serious 

 illness, is a matter of common experience. I 

 have myself experimented on the subject, and 

 have fe'd dogs for weeks together with food 

 contaminated with tin compounds, without in- 

 jury. I have also watched the effect of the 

 daily use, for a lengthened period, of tin-con- 

 taminated food by adult persons, also without 

 obvious results. I am not prepared to say that 

 tin compounds are inert, but evidence is want- 

 ing to show that the daily ingestion of frac- 

 tions of a grain of tin compounds is manifestly 

 injurious to health." 



CANOES. The word "canoe" is of Ameri- 

 can origin. The early Spanish explorers trans- 

 lated it into canoaj and the French into canot, 

 and the dictionaries define it as a rude boat, 

 hollowed from a log, or made from skins or 

 bark, and used by savage races. The past 

 twenty-five years, however, have brought 

 canoeing into prominence as a means of out- 

 door recreation, especially in Great Britain 

 and her colonies, and in the United States. 

 The canoe has been civilized, and has become 

 in effect a small yacht, capable of making ex- 

 tended cruises wherever there is water a few 

 inches in depth, and under all conditions prac- 

 ticable or safe for any small boat. Canoeing, 

 as a recognized recreation, is definitely traced 

 back to the time when John MacGregor, an 

 Englishman, conceived the idea of building a 

 boat that should combine the sea-going quali- 

 ties of the Esquimau kyack with the con- 

 structional strength and nice finish of scientific 

 workmanship. The first result of this experi- 

 ment was the "Rob Roy," in which Mr. Mac- 

 Gregor made his famous voyages on the Jor- 

 dan, the Nile, and other rivers, seas, and lakes. 

 His books introduced canoeing to the English- 

 speaking world, though as a recreation for 

 gentlemen it has, in a less elaborate form, been 

 popular in Canada since the early days of the 

 French occupation. 



It will be seen from the engraving that the 

 original "Rob Roy " type is without "sheer" 

 that is, without an upward rise of deck and 

 gunwales at the bow and stern. This rendered 



