COPPER-GREENING IN FRANCE. 1057 



commission to cause it to admit the perfectly harmless nature of the copper present 

 in artificially greened vegetables. It is not possible to unreservedly admit the 

 impossibility of mild bodily derangements arising from the long continued consump- 

 tion of copper. The morbid troubles which all the world knows it may cause have 

 appeared to constitute a danger sufficiently serious to awaken the solicitude of the 

 Government. It is thought that the possibility of an error or accident in the fac- 

 tory, allowing the entrance into the food of sufficient of the metal to injure the con- 

 sumer, is a good reason for maintaining the proscription. 



Since there are at least two processes already known by which the desired green 

 color may be imparted to legumes without the use of copper, the commission regards 

 it as eminently undesirable to remove the prohibition now resting upon the employ- 

 ment of copper and refuses to recommend the toleration, even to the amount of 18 

 mg per kilo, recommended as a compromise by the Hygienic Congress of 1878. 



It is objected that the new methods are insufficient, but the commission has exam- 

 ined numerous samples of goods preserved by them, some of which had been kept 

 in stock for a year, and is able to pronounce them eminently satisfactory. 



In order to judge correctly of the efficacy of various processes of preservation 

 it is recommended incidentally by the commission that each package bear the date 

 of packing. 



The minority in favor of the toleration of the use of copper salts suggests as a 

 perfectly fair means of settling the question that it be required of each manufac- 

 turer to describe his process on the label and leave to the consumer the responsi- 

 bility of selecting. This, it is thought, however, would amount to a prohibition and 

 would be difficult to enforce. 



The commission reports that, after having examined the documents submitted 

 and established the possibility of producing preserves of the color desired without 

 the use of copper, it is of the opinion that it is inadvisable to authorize the uso of 

 salts of copper in the preparation of foods. 



This conclusion was adopted by the Comite" at the meeting of April 

 21, 1881. 



The reports of Brouardel and Pasteur also stirred up the Societe" de 

 medicine publique. This body decided to pass upon the subject and to 

 that end formed a commission consisting of Brouardel, Bouley, De- 

 caisne, A. Gautier, A. J. Martin, Capias, Proust, Eochard, E. Trelat, 

 and Galippe, the last being reporter. The report received at the meet- 

 ing of April 28, 1880, was in substance as follows : l 



The report of Brouardel and Pasteur recommends that coppering be tolerated if 

 the packages of food be legibly marked with a statement of the fact. Would the 

 administration force a business man not only to reveal the secrets of his factory but 

 stamp them on the goods offered for sale? Such an obligation could not be imposed 

 on the packers. If the process is dangerous to health the Government can suppress 

 it. But in the actual state of science it is impossible to prove that the health of 

 the consumer is exposed to any risk whatever by the greening process as at present 

 carried on. 



To advertise the presence of copper would be to ruin the canning industry, since 

 a large part of the public still believes, in spite of expert testimony or in ignorance 

 of it, in the toxic nature of copper and its salts. 



A can of peas contains 6 mg of copper. If eaten by three persons each consumes 

 2 mg of copper, which seems insignificant, since most people do not live upon peas 

 exclusively. Furthermore, copper exists in the preserves in the form of insoluble 



1 Ann.d'hyg. publ., 1880, [3], 3, 531. 

 23368 tfo. 13 4 



