Xo. 4.] FOOD ADULTERATION. 185 



a tendency to disease, so enervating the system that other 

 forms of disease will fasten upon it, Avliich are not due to 

 kind of foods eaten. It tends to weaken the body and 

 weaken the efforts which it will make to reject the ordinary 

 forms of disease to which it is subject. So I think that it 

 is due, especially to that class of our people who have a 

 good deal of trouble with digestion, and to the infants and 

 to the invalids, that they should be protected by la^v from 

 insidious dangers to which they are exposed. 



You may think, practicalh^, that we have no foods except 

 those which are adulterated. Of course, in an address of 

 this kind it is only natural to dwell upon those things which 

 illustrate the facts 3'ou bring forth ; but I would not have 

 you believe, by any means, that the great mass of foods 

 which we eat are adulterated in any resjiect at all. 



There is no such thing, I believe, as sand in the sugar. I 

 have examined thousands of pounds of white sugar, and 

 never discovered any sand. I think that is an old joke 

 without any basis in the United States. And as to flour, 

 I don't think you need to fear meeting your death in that 

 respect. Flour and sugar, the two staple foods, may be 

 regarded as unadulterated. All foods are not adulterated. 

 Manv are free of adulteration, although, unfortunately, all 

 are not so. 



Butter, — what shall I say about butter? I am address- 

 ing a large body of men interested in the dairy business, 

 and I wouldn't like to say what I think of butter. I am 

 one of those unfortunate people who are opposed to the col- 

 oring of butter, and I expect I shall always be. If nature 

 doesn't color it, I will take it as nature makes it, any way ; 

 I don't think we can improve on nature. 



Mr. H. S. Periiam (of Chelmsford). I would like Dr. 

 Wiley to tell us if there are any preservatives that can be 

 "used which are not harmful to health. He did not speak 

 of benzoate of soda. I would like to in(|uirc if that is harm- 

 ful as well as those he mentioned. 



Dr. Wiley. As a result of our own experiments, although 

 we haven't the data tabulated from feeding young men on 



