76 THOMPSON YATES LABORATORIES REPORT 
to go into the witness-box to prove to the court the value of these drugs when used 
medicinally, the evidence proving nothing more than that a dose of physic can be 
administered without injury in certain diseased conditions of the human frame ; but 
the promiscuous administration of doses of physic of this character at meal times is 
known to have a very prejudicial effect, especially upon young infants. 
The addition of formalin, or boracic acid, to milk, appears to be exceedingly 
uncommon in Liverpool, a growing tendency last year to the use of these materials in 
milk having been checked by a prosecution under the Food and Drugs Act. 
It is abundantly plain that there can be no real necessity for the use of these 
drugs in milk ; if it were a real necessity the sale of milk could not go on as it does, 
without their use. Of all articles in which the use of chemical preservatives is likely 
to be attended with mischief, milk is the most likely, and it is in this case that 
the use of preservatives is most indefensible. The experiments conducted in the 
Bacteriological Department of the Thompson Yates Laboratories are sufficient to 
establish the dangers of the practice, even if they stood alone. There are numerous 
cases of injury resulting from the use of milk so preserved. One may be quoted : — 
Mrs. E. T. voluntarily offered her milk dealer twice the price he asked to send to 
her pure milk to be used for her infant. The double price, however, did not deter 
the dealer on one occasion from sending milk containing boracic acid preservative, the 
presence of which was immediately detected by its effect upon the child. The dealer 
made no secret of his action when taxed with it. In cases such as this the use of 
the preservative is distinctly toxic, hence, if the use be allowed by law, the fact should 
be made known to the purchaser, since of all casual dangers to health, those arising 
from the use of poisons in food are the most difficult to defend one's self from. 
Colouring Matters 
Colouring matters seem to have two distinct uses in foods — in the one case, 
merely to give an attractive appearance to an article, but without imitating any other 
article ; and in the other case, it is added to increase the resemblance of the article to 
that which it is intended to simulate. 
The commonest colouring matter, which is usually used for sausages, especially 
German sausages, consists of a mixture of borax, red coal tar dye of the class known 
as sulphonated diazol, with a little salt or saltpetre, and sometimes ground rice or 
bread crumbs mixed with it. Armenian bole consists of oxide of iron with a siliceous 
matter. 
The use of these colouring matters by no means necessarily implies fraudulent 
intent — purchasers might be supposed to know that no natural food stuff could have 
the remarkable colour of some German sausages ; but there is another colouring 
matter which might, without injustice, be suspected of bordering upon the fraudulent ; 
that is ' Smokene.' This is a mixture of borax, salt, creosote, and red coal tar dye, 
