December 5, 1901 



NA TURE 



potency in unlimited quantity could not be sanctioned in 

 food. The other exception, milk, is obviously also upon 

 a different level ; the fact that it forms the staple diet of 

 invalids and children renders it especially important 

 that it should be as pure as possible. It was, further, 

 quite apparent from the evidence that the milk supply of 

 London could be adequately maintained without preser- 

 vatives, and, further, that these substances tended to 

 mask uncleanly dairying. For the prohibition of colour- 

 ing matter in milk there seems less reason. Annatto is 

 admittedly harmless, and if the recommendations of the 

 Milk Standardising Committee be adopted the fat 

 standard will be uniform, and hence the colour will no 

 longer be, at amy rate in this regard, deceptive. Anything 

 which improves the appearance of food, without it is 

 harmful or done with direct intent to defraud in the 

 physiological sense, that is to mask an actual nutritive 

 deficiency, should be encouraged in that by pleasing the 

 senses we can often help the digestion and, further, often 

 save actual waste, as people will not eat what does not 

 look nice. 



This brings us to one point upon which, apparently, the 

 Commitiee do not agree, viz., the use of copper sulphate for 

 rendering preserved vegetables and fruits permanently 

 green. Three members of the Committee recommend the 

 prohibition of this practice, but Prof. Tunnicliffe is of the 

 opinion that the amount of copper should be restricted to 

 half a grain per pound and declared. The difference 

 seems to be one of general principle vosus specific 

 fact. The Committee regard the addition of a substance 

 to food which in certain quantities is undoubtedly 

 poisonous to be undesirable in any quantity. It appears, 

 however, that it is very questionable whether the copper 

 compound actually present in the green peas is poisonous. 

 Prof. TunniclifTe's experiments show clearly that only a 

 relatively small moiety of the copper is absorbed, or at 

 any rate remains in the human system, when it is ingested 

 in the form in which it occurs in preserved peas. These 

 results are practically identical with those obtained by 

 Brandl in the German Gesundheitsamt. People have taken 

 peas greened with copper for almost Ijalf a century and 

 no case of chronic or acute copper poisoning has so far 

 been traced to this cause. We cannot agree that evidence 

 of the injurious effect of copper would be difficult to 

 obtain ; copper chemically is one of the easiest sub- 

 stances to detect, and physiologically it produces well- 

 marked and fairly characteristic symptoms. Had copper 

 poisoning from coppered peas occurred, we think it 

 would not have escaped detection. It is at any rate to 

 be hoped that we shall not be consigned everlastingly to 

 brown peas without further investigation. 



Some surprise may perhaps be felt that salicylic acid 

 was not prohibited, as this substance is undoubtedly 

 possessed of active medicinal properties ; it is, however, 

 stringently controlled, only one grain per pound or per 

 pint being allowed. This substance is a very active 

 antiseptic, and is especially useful in jam making and 

 temperance beverages. The complete sterilisation of 

 jam is very apt to break up delicate fruits which it is 

 certainly a pleasure to have whole. Many experiments 

 have been made with salicylic acid, and in the quantities 

 recommended by the Committee it seems quite harmless. 



The appendices to the report will be full of interest to 

 the expert ; they comprise reports on very complete 

 physiological experiments handed in by Prof Tunnicliffe, 

 being his own work in collaboration with Dr. Rosenheim 

 and others, also reports of visits to Ireland and Denmark 

 and many other invaluable reference data. 



The work of the Committee must certainly be desig- 

 nated as thorough in the extreme, and their recommend- 

 ations as eminently sensible. In particular we consider 

 the suggestion as an excellent one that machinery should 

 ■be provided either by the Local Government Board or 

 by the formation of a separate Board of Reference for 

 NO. 1675, VOL. 65] 



exercising control over the use of preservatives and 

 colouring matters in food. It is sincerely to be hoped 

 that legislation on the lines of the report will not be 

 delayed : the necessity for it is urgent, as anyone can see 

 who follows the conflicting decisions given in the law 

 courts under the present Sale of Food and Drugs Act. 



PRZEWALSKPS HORSE AT WOBURN ABBEY. 

 A PERIOD of twenty years has elapsed since Poliakoff 

 -^*- described an apparently new species of wild horse 

 obtained by the late Colonel Przewalski in the deserts of 

 Mongolia, under the name of Eqiitis przewalskii. Al- 

 though only a single example was then obtained, much 

 interest attached to the discovery, as the animal appeared 

 from the description to be in several respects inter- 

 mediate between the domesticated horse and the wild 

 asses, or, at any rate, the Asiatic representatives of the 

 latter. For a long period nothing more was heard of the 

 animal, and zoologists were uncertain whether they had 

 to do with a real species or a hybrid, or possibly with 

 one of the feral or wild representatives of the common 

 horse. Within the last few years, however, other speci- 

 mens — some alive — were received in Russia, and one 

 skin was sent to the Paris ' Museum. Although no very 

 detailed or well-illustrated description of them has 

 hitherto appeared, these specimens appeared to demon- 

 strate that Przewalski's horse was entitled to rank as a 

 distinct species. 



Still, without making a visit to Paris or Moscow, 

 English naturalists had no opportunity of satisfying them- 

 selves by actual inspection as to the distinctness of this 

 interesting animal, and the figures hitherto published left 

 several important features in obscurity. The acquisition 

 by the Duke of Bedford of a drove of twelve fine colts 

 (imported by Mr. C. Hagenbeck, of Hamburg) has 

 brought this unsatisfactory state of affairs to a close, 

 and it is now possible to study the characters of the 

 species (in an immature state) with some approach to 

 exactness. 



The colts at Woburn Abbey, which were foaled last 

 spring or summer, are about the size of Shetland 

 ponies ; and, if we may judge by the absence of " leggi- 

 ness" in their build, do not seem likely to grow very 

 large. In general appearance they are much more like 

 ponys than donkeys, the ears being short and the tails 

 haired to within a comparatively short distance of the 

 root, although there appears to be a certain amount of indi- 

 vidual variation in this respect. Eleven out of the twelve 

 have, however, white muzzles, which communicate to the 

 head a somewhat asinine appearance. All are in their 

 winter (or ? first) coats, which are of a dun colour, with 

 the front of the legs dark brown oi black, the mane and 

 tail being also black. The mane is at present upright, 

 but exhibits a slight tendency to fall over, which may 

 increase with age ; and there does not seem, at least 

 in most cases, to be a distinct forelock. Most of the 

 colts show no dorsal stripe, although in one or two there 

 is a short one on the rump. There is no trace of a 

 shoulder-stripe, or of dark barrings on the legs. Both 

 fore and hind legs have callosities. So far as I can 

 recollect, the underparts are lighter than the back. In 

 young animals the true form of the hoofs is not fully 

 developed, but I think the hoofs of these colts are of the 

 relatively large size characteristic of the horse and the 

 Asiatic wild ass. 



The Woburn colts render it quite certain that Equus 

 przeioalskii is a true species and not a hybrid. It is 

 equally clear that it is perfectly distinct from the kiang 

 and all other races of the Asiatic wild ass. 



The only other animal with which Przewalski's horse 

 could be identical is the tarpan, or wild (or feral) horse of 

 the Kirghiz steppe, which, as I am informed, is now 

 extinct. Tarpan are, however, described by Pallas as 



