COPPER-GKEENING IN FRANCE. 1047 



speaking, to produce serious accidents, yet the addition of an eminently poisonous 

 substance to food, in indeterminate proportions, constitutes a danger which can not 

 be ignored and which the Government should not tolerate. The committee does not 

 hesitate to condemn the use of vessels and salts of copper for preserving fruits and 

 leguminous foods. 



This resulted in a ministerial decree, dated December 20, 1860, car- 

 rying this recommendation into effect February 1, 1861. 1 It read as 

 follows : 



In consideration of the fact that the employment of vessels of copper, or the addi- 

 tion of copper salts, in preserving fruits and legumes, presents danger to the public 

 health, and in consideration also of the fact that the prohibition of this practice, 

 which is rendered necessary to protect the healtli of the consumers, will not be 

 injurious to the welfare of the industry, inasmuch as other greening methods exist: 



1. Mamifacturers are forbidden to use vessels or salts of copper in the preserva- 

 tion of preserved fruits or legumes intended for food. 



2. Violations will be prosecuted before the courts and punished according to law. 



This law, however, remained a dead letter for many years, though 

 the Parisian police went through the form of buying and examining 

 samples in 1869, 1872, 1873, and 1875, finding no copper, however. 



In 1876 public and official attention was once more called to the sub- 

 ject. 



In that year Dr. Mice" was commissioned by the prefect of the Gironde 

 to investigate copper greening, a manufacturer having asked permission 

 to put up copper-greened vegetables destined for export. The report 2 

 of Dr. Mice was unfavorable and permission was refused. 



About the same time P. Carles of Bordeaux examined a number of 

 samples of canned vegetables for a Bordeaux merchant, who was anx- 

 ious to send his customers in foreign countries only irreproachable 

 goods and in whom the bright green color of the goods he had been 

 selling had awakened suspicion. The examination showed that they 

 contained copper in considerable quantities. From one can were ob- 

 tained 49 mg of copper oxide, equivalent to 155 mg of the sulphate. 

 The conclusion of M. Carles, however, was : 



As a can is ordinarily divided up among several persons, this quantity would 

 not appear to present serious danger. 



In the same year 3 a manufacturer of canned foods called the atten- 

 tion of the Parisian police to the fact that foods greened by copper 

 were on sale in Paris, and stated that this was dangerous to health. 

 The police bought 18 samples of the goods in question and submitted 

 them to Pasteur for analysis. This chemist reported the presence of 

 copper in 10 samples. 



In his report (February 8, 1877) to the Conseil d'hygiene publique 

 et de salubrite, he stated as follows : 



1 Brouardel, Ann. d'hyg., 1880, s. 3, 3, 198. 



2 Trav. du Conseil de salubrite de la Gironde, 1876; quoted by A. Chevallier, Rep. 

 depharm. (Fr.), 1877, 5, 371. 



3 Anii. d'hyg. publ., 1880, s. 3, 3, 199. 



