No. 4.] REPORT OF DAIRY BUREAU. 395 



injury is producible, although there is no evidence of injury to 

 health. He points out that it is the vendor, and not the consumer, 

 that is benefited. 



Dr. F. J. Allen points out the possibility of daily accumulation 

 of antiseptics quite sufficient to produce a gradual lowering of the 

 standard of health. 



Dr. Sims Woodhead draws attention to idiosyncrasy and cu- 

 mulative effect, and dwells upon our ignorance of the action of 

 certain drugs (e.g., formalin) on food stuffs. He points out that, 

 by the use of preservatives, foods of inferior quality may be 

 doctored. He would make the use of antiseptics illegal, unless 

 their nature and quantity be made known. 



It is not to be forgotten that, while some disagreement as to 

 the positively harmful effects of antiseptics when used by adults 

 may be found among physicians, the presence of these powerful 

 drugs in the food of infants admits of no justification. 



Renovated Butter. 



We have several times called attention to the increasing 

 sale and use of butter which has been renovated by various 

 processes and sold in a wholesale way as " process butter" 

 or " sterilized butter." The managers of these renovating 

 establishments buy up stale, rancid, unmerchantable and 

 low-grade butters, of various degrees of badness. These 

 are melted together and clarified. The oil is then chilled 

 and the granules rechurned with milk or cream. The re- 

 sultant product has many of the physical characteristics of 

 oleomargarine, and may be mistaken for it by some of the 

 ordinary tests. Chemical analysis shows that the substance 

 has an amount of volatile fatty acids below the ordinary 

 average for butter, but much more than oleomargarine con- 

 tains. We have taken several samples brought to us during 

 the past year, and Dr. B. F. Davenport reported that the 

 article could be properly called "an oleomargarine," and 

 that "it is not the product ordinarily known as butter." 

 This process butter is frequently sold dishonestly, and often 

 the consumer is ignorant of its real character, and that raw 

 material unfit for human food may have entered into its 

 composition. Pennsylvania requires it to be branded and 

 labelled as "renovated butter." This is an honest name, 

 and we can see no objection to it. A New York butter 



