24 



ARE MINIMAL QUANTITIES OP PRESERVATIVES PERMISSIBLE? 



It is admitted by all who have examined the subject in a critical 

 way, even by the users of preservatives, that in certain maximum 

 quantities the limit of toleration is reached in each individual and 

 positive injury is done. But it is also well recognized that many, if 

 not all, of the usual foods when used in large excess produce injurious 

 results. The many cases of disease produced by overeating, or by eat- 

 ing improperly prepared or poorly cooked foods, or by eating at 

 unusual times, are illustrations of this fact. Upon this basis and 

 upon the further statement that when used in extremely small quan- 

 tities the preservatives in question can not be regarded as harmful, is 

 founded the principal argument in favor of the use of the preservatives, 

 aside from the fact that the foods themselves are kept in a better and 

 more wholesome state. 



It is only proper to give to this argument full consideration and not 

 to brush it aside as illogical and irrelevant. It is evident that any 

 attempt to determine experimentally the effect of extremely minute 

 quantities of any preservative, even when used continuously, would not 

 be likely to lead to any definite result. In the foregoing data we have 

 illustrations of the fact that even large quantities of the preservative 

 employed larger by far than would probably ever be found in any 

 food product do not always act in such a way as to permit of definite 

 interpretation. The claim, therefore, that the use of such preservatives 

 is justified when the amount is extremely small, and when even these 

 small amounts are used only at intervals and not continuously, id 

 worthy of careful consideration. 



An illustration which is pertinent may be taken from the particular 

 preservatives with which the foregoing experiments have been mad^j 

 namely, boric acid and borax. One of the food products to which the 

 preservatives are very commonly added is butter. This stateme: 

 should not be taken to imply that in butter prepared for domestic u 

 in this country borax is found to any considerable extent. When bu 

 ter, however, is to be transported over long distances, and necessari 

 kept a long while, the addition of borax is very frequently practiced. 



The dietetic data which have been accumulated in the course of f 

 experiment show that the quantity of butter consumed daily varies fro 

 30 to 70 grams. Suppose, as a maximum, we say that the quantity 

 butter consumed in any one case daily is 100 grams, and that it contai 

 1 gram of boric. acid or an amount of borax equivalent thereto, 

 maximum quantity of boric acid used in a day in this case would 

 1 gram. In point of fact, however, it would rarely, if ever, reach thi 

 amount, but even in those cases where butter is eaten freely proba 

 half a gram would be about the maximum quantity consumed, 

 ther than this, 1 per cent of boric acid, or its equivalent in borax, i 



