BULLETIN 



Contribution from the Referee Board of Consulting Scientific Experts, Ira 

 Remsen, Chairman. April 29, 1914. 



(PROFESSIONAL PAPER.) 



ALUM IN FOODS. 



EXPLANATORY STATEMENT. 



A report on the influence of aluminum compounds on the nutrition 

 and health of man has been submitted by the Referee Board of Con- 

 sulting Scientific -Experts, in answer to questions put to it by the 

 department. The report of the board itself, signed by each member, 

 is brief, but it is accompanied by three elaborate reports giving the 

 results of three sets of extensive experiments on human subjects 

 conducted independently by three members of the board. To get 

 the board's conclusions before the public at this time, it is considered 

 advisable to publish its findings, but to omit the extensive reports 

 of the three experimenters, giving only their final conclusions. 



QUESTIONS SUBMITTED TO REFEREE BOARD. 



The questions submitted to the board were as follows: 



1. Do aluminum x compounds, when used in foods, affect injuriously the nutritive 

 value of such foods or render them injurious to health? 



2. Does a food to which aluminum compounds have been added contain any added 

 poisonous or other added deleterious ingredient which may render the said food 

 injurious to health? (a) In large quantities? (b) In small quantities? 



3. If aluminum compounds be mixed or packed with a food, is the quality or 

 strength of said food thereby reduced, lowered, or injuriously affected? (a) In large 

 quantities? (6) In small quantities? 



CHARACTER OF EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED. 



In order to base their report upon first-hand knowledge, the board 

 instituted three sets of experiments, each independent of the others. 

 One set of experiments was conducted by Dr. Russell H. Chittenden, 

 of the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, New Haven; 

 another by Dr. Alonzo E. Taylor, of the Medical School of the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; and the third by Dr. John H. 

 Long, of the North western University Medical School, Chicago. In 



1 Aluminum is a synonym for aluminium, the metal used for cooking utensils and other implements. 

 Alum or sodium aluminum sulphate is a salt of this metal. 

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