
PURE AND IMPURE FOODS. 
BUTTERMILK VS. SODA WATER. 
The hot, dusty, tired, “sticky” wheel- 
man is apt to rest his “bike” in one of the 
- convenient stalls in front of the favored 
and favorite drugstore or confectionery, 
while he poisons himself with “cream and 
soda.” 
A more insidiously deadly drink was 
never invented! Without going into 
details it may be put down as a fact that, — 
from the lead tubes through which the 
soda water and syrups run, down to the 
half-cleaned glasses in which the bever- 
age is served, all are poisoned, and, in 
Qg cases out of to fairly swarming 
with lethal bacteria! If you do not believe 
it make a few cultures and use your micro- 
scope understandingly; or furbish up 
your knowledge of toxicology and use a 
few chemical tests. You will not remain 
a doubting Thomas very long if you do! 
Instead of filling your stomach with 
poisonous cream and s’ ’a, why not pa- 
tronize some good, reputable creamery 
and allay your thirst, as well as renew 
your vigor, with a glass of pure, cold but- 
termilk? “An ordinary glass of butter- 
milk,” says Farmers’ Bulletin No. 74, of 
the United States Department of Ag- 
riculture, ‘contains as much nutriment or 
nourishment as half a pint of oysters, or 
2 ounces of bread, or a good sized po- 
faton Buttermilk is more nutritious 
than any other beverage, unless it be 
cocoa and chocolate; and, owing to its 
acidity, allays thirst more speedily and 
more efficaciously than any other “soft” 
drink (or hard one, either, as far as drinks 
are concerned) that can be obtained. And 
then, too, it is such an excellent fuel. 
Every pint of buttermilk is equivalent to 
165 calories! 

THE VALUE OF BILE. 
To tell a man that bile is one of the 
most necessary fluids of his entire animal 
economy seems like flying in the face of 
Providence and advocating that which no 
man needs and which no man de- 
sires. And _ yet, without bile, the 
intestinal tract would be one continuous 
sewer of putrefaction. Man’s food would 
contain within itself enough of poisonous 
putrefactive and putrescent substances 
to land him in kingdom come in short 
order were this most necessary and effect- 
ive fluid absent. Bile and _ biliousness 
are so commonly and universally associ- 
ated that the laity have come to look upon 
bile as a dangerous and never-to-be-de- 
sired thing; yet bile is nature’s disin- 
fectant, without which man would be in 
poor case indeed! Biliousness, in 9 
cases out of 10, is rather the absence 
of healthy bile than the presence of too 
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395 
much bile, as is generally supposed. In 
point of fact, one cannot have too much 
healthy bile if it be properly eliminated. 
One of the most urgent laws of nature 
is that the digestive tract should be kept 
thoroughly aseptic—free from poison— 
and the best antiseptic as far as man’s 
ingested food is concerned is bile; there- 
fore, see to it that the liver, the birthplace 
of this invaluable fluid, is always ‘‘up-to- 
date, on time, and a Johnny-on-the-spot!” 
Otherwise, some one is apt to accuse you 
of keeping a glue factory in your thoracic 
Cavity, or of leasing: yourseli-as a tank - 
for the reception of sulphuretted or car- 
buretted hydrogen gas, or some other 
quintessence of “‘stinkdom.”’ Neglect the 
liver and order a burial plot; this is an 
axiom. 

FAKE FOODS. 
It is really remarkable to what lengths the 
ingenuity of man will carry him in invent- 
ing substitutes for bona fide foods. Take, 
for instance, maple syrup. Dr. Wiley, 
chemist to the National Agricultural De- 
partment, recently stated before the Senate 
Food Commission that “pure maple syrup 
is a great joke. As a rule it is made of 
coarse yellow sugar, flavored with extract 
of hickory bark. There is more ‘ Vermont 
maple syrup’ made in Davenport, Ia., 
every year than in the whole State of Ver- 
mont.” 
Notwithstanding the fact that “butterine” 
must be labeled as such, great quantities of 
this stuff is sold in the market without 
label in open defiance of the law. When 
called upon to explain this infraction of the 
law, most of the dealers declare that ‘it is 
an accident due to oversight of clerks.” 
Charles T. Knight, editor of a dairy pa- 
per, brought before the Senate Food Com. 
mission an armful of samples of “butterine” 
bought from dealers, none of which was 
stamped “oleomargarine”’ as the law re- 
quired. 
We have frequently purchased what was 
advertised, ‘‘creamery butter,’’ but which, 
on analysis, proved to be oleomargarine. 
Most of the olive oils to be obtained in the 
open market are nothing but cotton seed 
oil, which has been shipped from this 
country to Italy, and come back to us 
labeled “olive oil.’ All of the so-called 
“fruit jellies’ are made from the gelatine 
of tendons and flavored currant, grape, crab 
apple, etc., artificially. 

GOD MADE FISH FOR MAN. 
All fish, when properly cooked, are 
food “fit to set before the king,” but the 
common “mud cat” when. properly pre- 
pared for the skillet (and many of my 
readers have a string of him awaiting the 
