IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
207 
person. Such laws are based on sound principles, and 
when properly brought to light, will be sustained by an 
intelligent public sentiment. 
It was the dream of Napoleon to obtain food direct 
from the elements and their ordinary compounds without 
the aid and intervention of life force, but he did not resort 
to mixing ground cigar boxes with cinnamon, or pulverized 
cocoanut shells with pepper in order that each soldier 
of his army might receive his full weight of rations. 
A greater army than Napoleon's striving for greater 
conquests exists on the American continent to-day, viz.: 
The American people, striving not only to establish good 
government and individual protection, but also to extend 
this good government and individual protection to the very 
food we eat and drink. In order to do this it is necessary 
that the government call to its aid all the light that sci- 
ence is able to give; and as chemistry is the most funda- 
mental and exact of the sciences, to begin with, the work 
will be largely one of chemical investigation. 
Among the many subjects that may come before the 
Academy of Sciences of the State of Iowa, none would be 
of more interest or of greater value to the public than the 
investigation first , of food products, and second , their 
effects on the human system. 
The wholesale adulteration of food products, is a great 
evil, injurious alike to the reputable dealer and to the public. 
A drug is adulterated when it differs in strength, quality 
of purity, from that laid down in the Pharmacopeia. 
A food is adulterated: First , if any substance has been 
mixed with it so as to lower or depreciate or injuriously 
affect its quality or purity; second , if any inferior substance 
has been wholly or in part substituted for it; third , if any 
valuable or necessary ingredients have been abstracted 
from it; fourth , if it is an imitation, or sold under the 
name of another article; fifth , if it consists wholly or in 
part of deceased or decomposed animal or vegetable sub- 
stance; sixth , if it is colored, coated, polished or powdered, 
whereby damage or inferiority is concealed, or if by any 
means it is made to appear better or of greater value than 
