No. 4.] FOOD ADULTERATION. 191 



Dr. Wiley. I have just been feeding a class of twelve 

 young men on formaldehyde for twelve weeks. They were 

 just coming ofi" their food as I came away, and of course 

 we haven't had time to tabulate the data, but I will say that 

 each showed visible signs of very severe distress. I left 

 four of them in bed, and the others wanted to go. Of 

 course we fed up to as much as one part in five thousand, 

 which is more than is ordinarily used in food ; but we began 

 with a nuich smaller quantity. But the question is not how 

 little of a dangerous article you can use in food, — the 

 courts have held that you shall not put any in ; and adding 

 a little of it is no excuse, — just as the law says you shall 

 not steal ; it is no excuse if you steal only a penny. If the 

 substance is injurious to health of itself, under the decisions 

 of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania it cannot be added 

 in any quantity at all. It would be different if the law said, 

 "in quantities which will make that food unwholesome," — 

 which would be an unfortunate law, because you never could 

 convict a person, for the sample itself would be already con- 

 sumed before the proof would be forthcoming. 



Now, we have positive proof, without going to the trouble 

 of tabulating the data, that formaldehyde is injurious to 

 health. It produced a very marked lowering of the pulse, 

 depression of the temperature, showing a specific action on 

 the heart. In four cases out of the twelve it was accompa- 

 nied by pains of a very severe nature, in two cases nausea 

 and vomiting, and in all cases preventing their taking the 

 food which they were compelled to take under their pledge, 

 whether they a\ anted it or not. On the whole, we decided 

 it was very injurious to health. We did not feed it to them 

 excessively, but one })art in five thousand. 



In regard to licjuors, that is a delicate question. I read 

 an advertisement the other day, written by an old lady one 

 hundred and six years old, — that is, it purported to be writ- 

 ten by a lady one hundred and six years old, — living in a 

 town where I used to live, in Indiana, saying : "I have just 

 passed my one hundred and sixth l)irthday, and am in per- 

 fect health; and I attribute my perfect health, in body and 

 mind, to the fact that every day for sixty years I have taken 



