BORIC ACID AND BORAX. 253 



If the} 7 may be justly called upon to eliminate the small quantities of 

 boric acid added in food, they can not logically be freed from the 

 necessity of eliminating also minute quantities of salicylic acid, sac- 

 charin, sulphurous acid, and sulphites, together with the whole list of 

 the remaining preservatives, which are eliminated principally through 

 the kidneys. It would be useless to contend that the occasional con- 

 sumption of small quantities of boric acid in a sausage, in butter, or 

 in preserved meat would produce even upon delicate stomachs any 

 continuing deleterious effect which could be detected by any of the 

 means at our disposal; but naturally it seems that this admission does 

 not in any way justif} 7 the indiscriminate use of this preservative in 

 food products, implying, as it would, the equal right of all other 

 preservatives of a like character to exist in food products without 

 restriction. 



It appears, therefore, that there is no convincing force in the argu- 

 ment deminimis unless it can be established that there is only a single 

 preservative used in foods, that this preservative is used in only a few 

 foods, that it will be consumed in extremely minute quantities, and 

 that the foods in which it is found are consumed at irregular intervals 

 and in small amounts. On the other hand, the logical conclusion 

 which seems to follow from the data at our disposal is that the use 

 of boric acid and equivalent amounts of borax should be restricted 

 to those cases where the necessity therefor is clearly manifest, and 

 where it is demonstrable that other methods of food preservation 

 are not applicable and that without the use of such a preservative 

 the deleterious effects produced by the foods themselves, by reason 

 of decomposition, would be far greater than could possibly come from 

 the use of the preservative in minimum quantities. In these cases it 

 would also follow, apparently, as a matter of public information, and 

 especially for the protection of the young, the debilitated, and the 

 sick, that each article of food should be plainly labeled and branded in 

 regard to the character and quantity of the preservative employed. 



De minimis non curat lex is a legal phrase which may be capable 

 of more than one construction. In the light of the above discussion it 

 may be said that its proper interpretation would be by the phrase, 

 ''The law does not excuse the use of injurious substances because they 

 may be present in small quantities." 



EFFECT OF BORIC ACID AND BORAX UPON GENERAL HEALTH. 



The most interesting of the observations which were made during 

 the progress of the experiments was in the study of the direct effect of 

 boric acid and borax, when administered in food, upon the health and 

 digestion. When boric acid, or its equivalent in borax, is taken into 

 the food in small quantities, not exceeding half a gram (7i grains) a 



