5718 
nored in the publication of Chittenden, Long 
and Herter, as if it had never existed! From 
this it may be concluded at once that the re- 
sults or conclusions of Wiley did not seem, to 
the second commission, worth discussing. 
This is so much the more surprising in that 
Wiley, under the authority of the Department 
of Agriculture, has, for years, been publish- 
ing similar investigations on boric acid, sali- 
eylic acid, ete. Under these circumstances I 
had at first thought of leaving Wiley’s work 
entirely out of consideration, but since Dr. 
VY. Gerlach, of Wiesbaden, in the third* of the 
detailed publications mentioned above, ex- 
presses his regret that he had access to only 
a short abstract of Wiley’s investigation, a 
discussion of the original, which now lies be- 
fore me, will be appropriate, especially as the 
work will become even more difficultly acces- 
sible in the future. 
Wiley studied the effect of benzoic acid on 
six persons and that of sodium benzoate on 
six others. In each case a 10-day period with- 
out the preservative was followed by a 5-day 
period with 1 gram, then by periods of equal 
length with 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 grams, each, of 
the preservative, and finally by another 10- 
day period without the preservative; 7. e., 40 
days, in 20 of which benzoic acid was admin- 
istered. Above all, it is to be regretted that 
the preparations were given in capsules and 
that the small quantities (0.25-0.5 gram) 
which, in practise, are most important were 
not administered, as the minimal dose was 1 
gram; and finally, that the experiments were 
extended only over a relatively short time. 
As far as concerns the results, I cling to the 
good custom of not doubting an investiga- 
tor’s facts and analytical data; only the basis 
and logic of the conclusions are here discussed. 
From the experiments, which are reported 
carefully and in considerable detail in 250 
pages, Wiley concludes some very disadvan- 
tageous things for benzoic acid. He finds: 
It is evident that the use of benzoic acid, either 
as such or in the form of sodium benzoate, is 
4“¢Physiologische Wirkungen der Benzoesaure 
und des benzoesauren Natrons,’’? Verlag von H. 
Staadt, Wiesbaden, 1909. 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 902 
highly objectionable and that it produces grave 
disturbances of the metabolism and health (irrita- 
tion of the stomach, nausea, headache and, in a 
few cases, vomiting). So much the more impor- 
tance is placed on these symptoms as they were 
observed in healthy men, well and carefully fed. 
All the test persons showed a distinct loss in 
weight and all the more or less marked changes 
in metabolism shown by investigation of the urine 
and feces were always of such a nature that they 
could never be regarded as a favorable change. 
In my opinion, this sentence might just as 
well read: Careful investigation of the urine, 
feces and metabolism did not shew a single 
symptom from which a disturbance due to the 
partaking of benzoic acid might be deduced! 
That the normal condition could not be im- 
proved by benzoic acid, as Wiley seems to re- 
quire, is not surprising. As Wiley is thus far 
the only investigator who, supported by com- 
prehensive experiments, has formed a con- 
demnatory opinion of benzoic acid on toxico- 
logical grounds, I have taken the trouble to 
criticize his work somewhat more closely and 
to examine the value of his arguments. The 
very thorough examination of the urine, which 
is reported in many tables, showed nothing 
special. Who could lay much value on the 
fact that in the benzoic-acid periods the 
amount of solid substances in the urine in- 
creases 2.3 grams, 2. e., from 55.5 to 57.8, when, 
in the first place, the diet is not strictly fixed 
and, secondly, the addition of 1-2 grams of 
benzoic acid per day almost completely covers 
the increase. The relation of sulphur to nitro- 
gen, sulphuric acid to nitrogen and phosphoric 
acid to nitrogen remained entirely unchanged; 
with the arbitrary diet the variations of 1-3 
per cent., either way, of the values are un- 
avoidable. The alkylsulphuric acids remained 
perfectly constant, the absolute amount of 
urinary sulphur changed only to an insignifi- 
cant degree explainable by the method of pro- 
cedure; a decrease of neutral sulphur from 14 
to 12.4 per cent. in the benzoic acid period 
and to 11.1 per cent. in the after period seems 
to be proved, while on the other hand the total 
sulphur shows an increase from 85.9 to 87.7 
and 88.9 per cent. But any one wanting to 
