THE ADULTERATION OP FOOD. 219 



is unjust, and demands reprisal by our government, and if our State Agricultural 

 Association will kindly ask the co-operation of the other like associations of our 

 country in demanding our rights through Congress in international commerce, the 

 time is not far distant when our substantials will be refused in the ports of France 

 and Germany likewise, no longer; should proper reprisais by our country in the 

 way of spurious wines, gewgaws, and the thousand and one articles of foreign manu- 

 facture, that are better produced at home, be required. In conclusion, Mr. Presi- 

 dent, permit me to say that it is in the power of the Agricultural Associations of 

 the country to regulate the commerce we hold with foreign nations, and if through 

 their various organizations they fail to instruct their Kepresentatives in Congress 

 as to the wishes of the great agricultural interests of the country, it will be their 

 own fault, and should not complain if all ports abroad are closed against their 

 surplus, which they had better not produce unless they can find a foreign market 

 for it, as it can not be produced for nothing. France has just revised her tariff, 

 discriminating largely against us and in favor of the farmers in Europe, charging 

 us twice the duty on wheat of any other country. I ask you gentlemen, re])resent- 

 ing as you do the agricultural interest in Indiana, is this right? 

 With mv best wishes for the Societv, I will close mv remarks. 



FOOD, AND THE ADULTERATIOI^ OF SOME ARTI- 

 CLES OF DIET.* 



BY DR. JOHN N. HURTY, OF INDIANAPOLIS. 



AH mankind take interest in consuming food, desiring in a general way that 

 what they eat be clean, pure, and wholesome, yet very few, comparatively, care to 

 study and understand the subject. 



What is a food? will be the first question to answer. I think a consideration 

 of the causes which compel us to eat will give most light Our bodies wear away 

 at every movement, however slight. To merely arise from sitting in a chair in- 

 creases the heart's beats several to the minute. Greater exertion increases the 

 heart's action still further, until a certain limit is reached. The phenomenon of 

 life is also accompanied with heat, which must have continual support. Inasmuch, 

 then, as our whole structure and its vital processes must be continually renewed 

 and maintained, whatever material subserves that end would be a food. It is as 

 essential, in the animal economy, to destroy as to construct, and as both these pro- 

 cesses stop upon the withholding of food we infer that they depend upon the same 

 cause for support. 



'•'An aadress delivered before the State and Delegate Boards of Agriculture at their 

 annual meeting January 8, 1885. 



