OCTOBEB 22, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



571 



action is not exhibited by a quantity of sub- 

 stance capable of some other different action, 

 but is exhibited only when the quantity of the 

 substance is a certain greatly increased 

 amount, then the quality is not an essential 

 quality, but one dependent on the quantitative 

 relation. 



In the application of these conclusions it is 

 advantageous to recognize the different kinds 

 of " added ingredients." Only those that 

 serve some legitimate purpose in the food need 

 be considered, as other additions would obvi- 

 ously be sophistication; moreover, it is con- 

 venient to classify such added substance ac- 

 cording to the particular purpose that they 

 serve. Thus, colors and preservatives are 

 classes of added ingredients; they are not 

 foods and yet may serve obvious purposes. In 

 sufficient quantity any of these substances, 

 like food itself, may be deleterious. Whether 

 they are essentially injurious or whether such 

 action is dependent on the quantitative rela- 

 tion is, from what precedes, to be determined 

 according to whether they may be injurious in 

 such quantities as are useful. If in these 

 quantities they may be injurious or if such 

 quantities are not widely separated from the 

 amount that becomes injurious from the quan- 

 titative relation, then safety requires that they 

 be considered as essentially deleterious and 

 that they come under the designation of 

 " added poisonous or other added deleterious 

 ingredient." If the reverse is true, that is, if 

 in the quantities added to food for a useful 

 purpose the substances in question do not 

 render such article of food injurious to health 

 but are only capable of doing so when added 

 in quantity widely separated from the amoiint 

 made use of, then such possible deleterious 

 action is not an essential quality of the sub- 

 stance, but a quality dependent on the quanti- 

 tative relation, and the added ingredient is not 

 an essentially deleterious substance and does 

 not and may not render the article of food 

 injurioiis to health according to the meaning 

 and intent of the law. This is true whether 

 or not the substance is capable of a deleterious 

 action by its abuse in being used in the in- 

 creased amount widely separated from the 



quantity which subserves the purpose of its 

 use. In this discussion, no new position is 

 taken in regard to these matters; there is 

 merely an attempt to present clearly distinc- 

 tions which have long been established in 

 practical life. As an example of such prac- 

 tise, consider the use of cream of tartar. As a 

 result of its use rochelle salt becomes an added 

 ingredient to the food. When ingested in 

 relatively large quantity this substance acts as 

 a saline purgative, abstracting fluid from the 

 blood and in such quantity is, in health, a 

 deleterious substance. However, such action 

 is not exhibited in any degree by the very 

 much smaller quantities present because of its 

 use in food. Hence, rochelle salt because of 

 its laxative effect in quantity is not an added 

 poisonous or deleterious substance according 

 to the meaning and intent of the law, notwith- 

 standing that it may become deleterious by its 

 abuse. Its addition to food is justified by its 

 usefulness and by the fact that it is not essen- 

 tially injurious, even though it may become 

 injurious in the quantitative relation. 



To summarize, we conclude that substances 

 added to food are essentially injurious when 

 incapable of serving a useful purpose in 

 amount widely separated from the quantity 

 that may produce deleterious effects ; and that 

 they are not essentiall,y injurious when capable- 

 of serving a useful purpose in amount widely 

 separated from the quantity that may produce 

 deleterious effect, even though, in this latter 

 instance, they may become deleterious by 

 abuse of the quantitative relation. 



E. E. Smith 

 bCHOoL OF Medicine, 



FOEDHAM UnIVEBSITT 



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