12 



J 



the writer for compilation and report. The extent of these sophistica- 

 tions can be truthfully said to be as broad as the continent. 



Their character, however, is such as to injure the pocket rather than] 

 the health. The general character of food adulterations is principally 

 commercial fraud, and the extent of criminal or poisonous adult er-l 

 ations in food is so limited as to amount to but a bagatelle in thej 

 immense sum of the products consumed. I am convinced that al 

 large proportion of poisonous adulterations arises from carelessness! 

 and ignorance, rather than from any desire to injure the customer to 

 whom sale is made. But ignorance is no excuse for the wholesale, 

 destruction of life by the addition of poisonous pigments to many arti- 

 cles of food, especially confectionery, cream, and like articles. It would 

 occupy too much space to show the numerous cases of poisoning from 

 eating cream, cakes, candies, cheese, pickles, canned goods, etc., andj 

 would add little value to this report; but the fact that such occurrences 

 are not only common but frequent shows the existence of an evil that) 

 demands the strictest remedial legislation possible. 



The existence of adulterations is conclusively proved in the pages 

 of Bulletins Nos. 13 (parts 1 to 8), 25, and 32, issued by the Division 

 of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture; by every report ol 

 State officials, where such exist; by testimony from every State where 

 investigations have been set on foot by pharmaceutical or pure-food 

 associations; by the testimony herewith submitted from every quartei 

 of this country, and by the admissions of the adulterators themselves. 



That adulteration is general and increasing is proved in the following 

 pages, as is also the fact that no kind of food, drugs, or liquors is free 

 from the finishing touches of the manipulators. It may be, therefore, 

 concluded that the practice is general and the character principally 

 fraudulent, with but occasional criminal additions, the latter, however, 

 too frequently causing loss of life and health. Ignorance and vice go 

 hand in hand in their destructive game, yet, whether the intent be crim- 

 inal and vicious, or simply fraudulent, the result is the same, and the 

 people suffer and will continue to suffer until the strong hand of Federal 

 law steps in to supplement and support the action of the States. 



As to the harmfulness of these practices, one has but to read the 

 results of coroners' inquests, in all sections of the Union, to determine 

 for himself that question. When illness and death occur from eating 

 or drinking some attractive and beautifully prepared article of food, 

 the fact that harm exists is proved. In a previous report I have shown 

 that death resulted from the use of chrome yellow not only to the cus- 

 tomer, but also to the vendor and members of his family. This did not 

 of necessity prove the man who used and sold the artide a knave, but 

 it proved him a fool. Now, to prevent a repetition of such occurrences, 

 the law should compel the man who manufactured the coloring matter 

 to brand it so that even the most ignorant could distinguish its harm- 

 ful qualities, and thereby at least restrict the nse of such articles. 



