PURE AND IMPURE FOODS. 



LTT US HAVE THE FACTS. 



Editor Recreation : 



Cumberstone, Md. 



I am glad you intend to ventilate the 

 subject of pure food for the people. No 

 subject is of greater importance; none I 

 think, more appropriate to the columns of 

 a magazine devoted to field and athletic 

 sports. Such sports are worthy of en- 

 couragement only on the ground that they 

 tend to the highest development of con- 

 stitutional vigor; the hygienic beau ideal; 

 sana mens in sano corpore. In a very 

 important sense your magazine is a journal 

 of hygiene. You advocate field and ath- 

 letic sports because of their hygienic value; 

 you advocate pure food supply for the peo- 

 ple for the same reason. 



It is a shameful fact that the adulteration 

 of medicine and food is practiced to an 

 enormous extent; and that thousands of 

 human lives are lost, and thousands more 

 reduced to hopeless invalidism, annually, 

 from both causes, is a fact which admits 

 of no doubt. As far back as 1866-67, when 

 I was a private student in the Laboratory 

 of the Late Professor John C. Draper, he 

 undertook an investigation of food adul- 

 teration in New York, in which work I 

 spent several months helping him; extend- 

 ing the investigation to certain medicines. 



We found medicines of leading import- 

 ance and high cost adulterated to the ex- 

 tent of one-half, and even more than one- 

 half their weight with foreign matter. Meat 

 or even deleterious canned articles of 

 food, confections, milk, and such products 

 as ground roasted coffee we found shame- 

 fully and often dangerously adulterated. 

 At that time butchers' meats were all 

 slaughtered at the place of consumption 

 and the microscopic examination of dis- 

 eased meat had not resulted in anything 

 practical. 



Like everything else the control of all 

 leading articles of food supply has been 

 rapidly concentrated in the hands of a few 

 great capitalists, and by a proper system 

 of inspection laws, the responsibility for 

 harmful and dangerous adulterations may 

 be easily fixed. The great packing estab- 

 lishments whose products enter interstate 

 commerce should be compelled to submit 

 their whole process to inspection, which 

 would be greatly facilitated by requiring a 

 license to do business from every such 

 concern. 



The Bureau of Animal Industries in the 

 Department of Agriculture could easily 

 take care of the inspection of animal foods. 



The microscopical and chemical divisions 

 of the department could also do a part of 

 the necessary work. States and municipali- 

 ties can easily regulate inspections within 

 their own jurisdiction. Army and Navy 

 supplies ought not to be purchased without 

 complete knowledge of the whole process 

 used and source of raw material; with con- 

 stant and competent testing of samples. 



M. G. Ellzey, M. D. 



505 



HAVE YOUR BLOOD TESTED. 



G. L. CURTIS, M. D., N. Y. CITY. 



I want to impress on the minds of sports- 

 men and the athletes, the necessity of know- 

 ing their physical condition before starting 

 on long hunting or fishing trips, or enter- 

 ing the athletic field. Too often the ath- 

 lete breaks down while in training, or at the 

 finish of a trying contest, and the sports- 

 man is frequently overcome by disease 

 when out of reach of his physician. These 

 misfortunes may in most cases be prevented 

 by having your blood examined and any 

 lurking disease pointed out in time to have 

 it eradicated from the system, or the person 

 warned against certain excesses. 



Every one should be glad to be fore- 

 warned of an attack of any of the fevers, 

 such as malaria, typhoid or rheumatic; apo- 

 plexy, consumption, nervous prostration, 

 etc. These conditions can all be outlined 

 in the blood in time to check their prog- 

 ress. 



A sportsman's enjoyment depends large- 

 ly on his good health, and this on the 

 condition of his blood. All diseases of the 

 \ jdy are traceable in the blood, and it is 

 here we look for confirmation of a suspect- 

 ed disease which is without the usual mani- 

 festations. It is an acknowledged fact that 

 signs of most diseases are readily seen by a 

 microscopical examination of the blood 

 and when photographed through the mi- 

 croscope an opportunity of prolonged study 

 of, the blood is afforded. Thus a diagnosis 

 of obscure disease may be made. 



As far back as 1659 Anthausius Kircher 

 claimed that disease was due to living or- 

 ganisms; but it was not until 1772 that 

 Lostorfer claimed to be able to distinguish 

 by a miscroscopical examination of the 

 blood the presence of syphilis and other 

 diseases. Brown-Sequard, Robert L. Wat- 

 kins and others have so closely applied 

 themselves to research in this special 

 branch of medicine that the germ or some 

 other indication of almost every disease can 



