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England to test their health fulness resulted in their favor. But this 

 conclusion rested upon the statement of the chemists that the resultant 

 salt of hydrate of aluminum remaining in the bread was insoluble, and 

 hence unhurtful when taken into the stomach. But some of the ablest 

 chemists of this country declare that hydrate of aluminum is quite 

 soluble, and hence is as hurtful as the alum in other forms. So that 

 the question is still an open one to be determined by further careful 

 scientific investigation. 



Dr. Hassall says of alum : 



" Father alum is very apt to disorder the stomach and to occasion acidity and dys- 

 pepsia." 



The New Jersey food commission says : 



Our investigations sbow that while especially the higher grades of cream of tartar 

 and acid phosphate of lime powders are maintained at a qnite uniform standard of 

 excellence, the State is flooded also with many baking powders of very poor qual- 

 ity cheap goods, poorly made. Of the thirty-nine brands examined, twenty-five 

 contain alum or its equivalent, in the shape of some soluble alumina compound; eight 

 are cream of tartar powders, with small quantities of other ingredients in several 

 cases; four are acid phosphate of lime powders; two belong properly under none of 

 the above classes. 



With one exception, the powders containing alum all fall below the average strength 

 of the cream of tartar powders, and in the majority of cases they fall much below the 

 better grades of the cream of tartar powders. 



In the cream of tartar and the acid phosphate of lime powders no indications of 

 substances likely to be injurious to health, in the quantities used, have been found. 



There appears to be ample ground for requiring that the makers of baking powders 

 should publish the ingredients used in their powders, in order that the consumer, 

 who may justly have doubts of the desirability of using certain kinds, may be pro- 

 tected. At present the only guaranty of an undoubtedly wholesome and efficient 

 article appears to be the name of the brand. 



Referring to Dr. Mallet's experiments, he says: 



He regards it as a fair conclusion that not only alum itself, but the residues which 

 its use in baking powder leaves in bread, cannot be viewed as harmless, but must be 

 ranked as objectionable, and should be avoided when the object aimed at is the pro- 

 duction of wholesome bread. 



These experiments of Professor Mallet are conducted in the right way, and his con- 

 clusions are entitled to great weight. We might quote the decided opinions of 

 many scientific men against the use of alum baking powders, but with the preceding 

 facts before us this phase of the question may be left. 



DAIRY PRODUCTS. 



Of dairy products Mr. Geghan says : 



The consumers of oleomargarine and they consist generally of the industrial or 

 working classes by using fraudulent articles of food, are compelled to pay '20 cents 

 a pound for a mixture of lard and tallow that can be purchased in their original 

 state for 5 cents a pound. It should be driven out of the markets as an unhealthy 

 article of food. Surely it is more economical for the housewife to pay 25 cents, or 

 even 30 cents, for pure creamery butter than to pay 25 cents a pound for tallow or lard. 



There is a principle involved in a manufacture of oleomargarhio which should sep- 

 arate it entirely from the question of cheap butter. Let this oleomargarine take the 

 place entirely of butter made wholly from cream, and we immediately curtail our 

 beef supply, an article of food which the American people, more than any other 



