892 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



system, as it freezes the bacteria and evaporates quickly, leaving 

 the milk in a perfectly wholesome condition. It is much cheaper 

 to use " Freezine " than ice. 



An ' ' Anti-Sour " has been sold in much the same way. 



These statements are so plausible that some milkmen have 

 been led into purchasing the article ; but a chemist can de- 

 tect it, and in every case where we have found it convictions 

 have ensued, nine in all. 



In one respect the advertisement tells the truth, and that 

 is, in a clause in which the substance is recommended for 

 cleaning, sweetening and purifying milk cans and bottles. 

 The effect of formaline in destroying bacteria is such as to 

 make it valuable for this purpose, and it is used to a con- 

 siderable extent in cleansing creameries and cheese factories. 

 It is stated that in parts of Europe formaline is used to 

 remove danger of disease germs in rooms where milk is kept 

 for the city trade. It is also used as a spray in cheese 

 rooms, to prevent mold on cheese. But we cannot recom- 

 mend it as an article of food. Whether it is an unsafe sub- 

 stance to take into the human stomach is not yet proven ; 

 that is, there is as yet no judicial evidence that any person 

 has actually suffered any ill effects from using food preserved 

 with formaline, although a report in a western paper of the 

 trial of a milkman in Kansas City for using formaldehyde 

 states that the compound is supposed to have caused the 

 serious illness of several persons, and the city chemist testi- 

 fied that the substance was poisonous. 



The consensus of the best opinion, however, has been and 

 is against chemical preservatives ; though boracic acid and 

 other substances may be harmless in minute quantities, the 

 general use of them is condemned. It is possible, however, 

 that this ground will have to be re-argued, on account of the 

 growing popularity of formaline. 



Dr. J. A. Miller, one of the chemists of the New York 

 department of agriculture, says : — 



It is not at all improbable that the use of formaline, not alone 

 for the preservation of milk, but of other food stuffs as well, will 

 soon become a wide one ; and it therefore seems to me to be a 



