174 PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



minimum amount found sufficient; 3. The fact of preservatives being 

 used and their amount should be stated on the label. 



Dr. J. B. Bradbury thinks that it is not necessary to forbid the use 

 of antiseptics, but that either the amount should be restricted, or the 

 fact of their addition stated on the label. 



Dr. Whitlegge can not speak positively, though it is clear to him that 

 the law should insist on a plain statement on the label if any preserva- 

 tive was added. 



The late Sir B. W. Richardson considered that antiseptics are not 

 only necessary at this moment, but when used in proper form and 

 quantity cause no injury whatever (a very bold statement). There 

 ought to be a license given permitting a certain fixed and not dangerous 

 quantity of antiseptics, and it ought to be stated on the label what 

 the antiseptic is and its quantity. 



Dr. Chittenden has shown that permanganate of potash, borax, alum, 

 sodium salicylate, quinine, and salts of alkaloids act antagonistically to 

 peptic digestion. 



In the light of the above evidence from such distinguished men, is it 

 any wonder that the layman is puzzled? Should we blame or consider 

 the manufacturer so reprehensible if he used or advocates the use of 

 antiseptics? 



The keynote of the foregoing is: that we know very little of the use 

 of these preservative agents, and that physiological investigations are 

 urgently called for. But in view of our insufficient knowledge, and 

 until we do have authentic data, would it not be more advisable and 

 erring on the safe side to prohibit the use of such drugs? 



Professor Hilgard states, "There is far too much at stake not to 

 deserve the utmost conservatism and distrust of departure from what 

 for thousands of years has, by the universal consensus of opinion, been 

 proved to be a safe criterion of the healthfulness of food: to permit in it 

 nothing that is not naturally an ingredient either of food itself or of the 

 human hodyJ^ 



I devote considerable time to the antiseptics, not because adulteration 

 by these is the most extensive — quite the reverse — (only about ten per 

 cent of the total sophistication is due to treatment with these chemicals), 

 but because they are of more vital interest, as they are generally present 

 in foods used by persons of weak digestion or by invalids whose digestive 

 systems are over-sensitive, and therefore more readily acted on by drugs. 

 Doctors often recommend for very young children and invalids '^unfer- 

 mented grape juice." Several brands are on the market in California 

 and in the East, each and all claiming to be absolutely pure and free 

 from antiseptics. With one or two exceptions they have, upon examina- 

 tion, showed the presence of notable quantities of salicylic acid. Some 

 of these samples have been procured from "pure-food exhibits." 



