26 



would be useless to contend that the occasional consumption of small 

 quantities of boric acid in a sausage, in butter, or in preserved meat 

 would produce even upon delicate stomachs any continuing deleterious 

 effect which could be detected by any of the means at our disposal, but 

 naturally it seems that this admission does not in any way justify the 

 indiscriminate use of this preservative in food products, implying, as it 

 would, the equal right of all other preservatives of a like character to 

 exist in food products without restriction. 



It appears, therefore, that there is no convincing force in the argu- 

 ment for the use of small quantities unless it can be established that 

 there is only a single preservative used in foods, that this preservative 

 is used in only a few foods, that it will be consumed in extremely 

 minute quantities, and that the foods in which it is found are consumed 

 at irregular intervals and in small quantities. On the other hand the 

 logical conclusion which seems to follow from the data at our disposal 

 is that boric acid and equivalent amounts of borax in certain quantities 

 should be restricted to those cases where the necessity therefor is clearly 

 manifest, and where it is demonstrable that other methods of food 

 preservation are not applicable and that without the use of such a pre- 

 servative the deleterious effects produced by the foods themselves, by 

 reason of decomposition, would be far greater than could possibly come 

 from the use of the preservative in minimum quantities. In these cases 

 it would also follow, apparently, as a matter of public information and 

 especially for the protection of the young, the sick, and the debilitated, 

 that each article of food should be plainly labeled and branded in regard 

 to the character and quantity of the preservative employed. 



EFFECT OF BORIC ACID AND BORAX UPON GENERAL HEALTH. 



The most interesting of the observations which were made during the 

 progress of the experiments was in the study of the direct effect of 

 boric acid and borax, when administered in food, upon the health and 

 digestion. When boric acid, or its equivalent in borax, is taken into the 

 food in small quantities, not exceeding half a gram (7i grains) a day, no 

 notable effects are immediately produced. The medical symptoms of the 

 cases in long-continued exhibitions of small doses or in large doses, 

 extending over a shorter period, show in many instances a manifest 

 tendency to diminish the appetite and to produce a feeling of fullness 

 and uneasiness in the stomach, which in some cases 'results in nausea, 

 with a very general tendency to produce a sense of fullness in the head, 

 which is often manifested as a dull and persistent headache. In addi- 

 tion to the uneasiness produced in the region of the stomach, there 

 appear in some instances sharp and well-located pains which, however, 

 are not persistent. Although the depression in the weight of the body 

 and some of the other symptoms produced persist in the after periods, 

 there is a uniform tendency manifested after the withdrawal of the pre- 



