BORIC ACID AND BORAX. 251 



serious consequences. Especially is this remark true of the kidneys, 

 which appear to be a general clearing house for all the surplus of saline 

 matters ingested in the foods. 



THE ARGUMENT DE MINIMIS. 



It is admitted by all who have examined the subject in a critical 

 way, even by the users of preservatives, that in certain maximum 

 quantities the limit of toleration is reached- in each individual and 

 positive injury is done, but it is also well recognized that many, if 

 not all, of the usual foods when used in large excess produce injuri- 

 ous results. The many cases of disease produced by overeating, or by 

 eating improperly prepared or poorly cooked foods, or by eating at 

 unusual times are illustrations of this fact. Upon this basis and upon 

 the further statement that when used in extremely small quantities 

 the preservatives in question can not be regarded as harmful is founded 

 the principal argument in favor of the use of the preservatives, aside 

 from the fact that the foods themselves are kept in a better and more 

 wholesome state. 



It is only proper to give to this argument full consideration and not 

 to brush it aside as illogical and irrelevant. It is evident that any 

 attempt to determine experimentally the effect of extremely minute 

 quantities of any preservative, even when used continuously, would 

 not be likely to lead to any definite result. In the foregoing data we 

 have illustrations of the fact that even large quantities of the preserv- 

 atives employed larger by far than would probably ever be found in 

 any food product do not always act in such a way as to permit of 

 definite interpretation. The claim, therefore, that the use of such 

 preservatives is justified when the amount is extremely small, and 

 when even these small amounts are used only at intervals and not con- 

 tinuously, is worthy of careful consideration. 



An illustration which is pertinent may be taken from the particular 

 preservatives with which the foregoing experiments have been made, 

 namely, boric acid and borax. One of the food products to which 

 these preservatives are very commonly added is butter. This state- 

 ment should not be taken to imply that in butter- prepared for .domes- 

 tic use in this country borax is found to any considerable extent. 

 When butter, however, is to be transported over long distances and 

 necessarily kept a long while, the addition of borax is very frequently 

 practiced. 



The dietetic data which have been accumulated in the course of this 

 experiment show that the quantity of butter consumed daily varies 

 from 30 to 70 grams. Suppose, as a maximum, we say that the quan- 

 tity of butter consumed in any one case daily is 100 grams, and that 

 it contains 1 gram of boric acid or an amount of borax equivalent 

 thereto. The maximum quantity of boric acid used in a day in this 



