THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
NOVEMBER,  1904. 
FOOD  PRESERVATIVES. 
By  Henry  Lbffmann. 
In  the  active  prosecutions  that  have  been  undertaken  within  the 
past  few  years  for  the  suppression  of  food  adulteration,  a  conspicu- 
ous feature  has  been  the  antagonism  to  some  preservatives.  The 
preservation  of  food  by  artificial  means  is  a  necessity  of  civilized 
life.  Some  methods  have  been  used  from  a  very  early  period. 
Among  these  are  cooking,  drying,  smoking,  salting  and  pickling. 
Of  less  importance,  because  of  limited  applicability,  are  freezing, 
spicing  and  sugaring.  Mankind  resorted  to  all  these  methods  long 
before  the  chemistry  and  physics  of  the  processes  of  fermentation, 
putrefaction  and  decay  were  known,  and  the  date  and  manner  of 
discovery  of  the  older  methods  are  unknown  to  us.  Indeed,  the 
history  of  the  development  of  exact  knowledge  in  this  respect  is 
within  the  memory  of  many  living  persons. 
The  progress  of  organic  chemistry  has  resulted  in  the  discovery 
of  several  substances  of  marked  antiseptic  quality  and  comparatively 
little  toxicity.  The  best-known  examples  are  formaldehyde,  salicy- 
lic acid,  benzoic  acid  and  the  naphthols.  One  inorganic  substance, 
boric  acid,  has  also  been  found  suitable  for  antiseptic  purposes. 
These  substances  are  eminently  adapted,  from  the  manufacturing 
point  of  view,  to  the  preservation  of  food.  They  are  cheap,  and,  in 
the  amount  needed,  give  no  color,  odor  or  appreciable  taste  to  the 
material.  Each  substance  has  its  preferable  applications.  Thus 
boric  acid  (including  borates)  is  adapted  to  the  preservation  of  meat 
and  milk ;  salicylic  and  benzoic  acids  to  fermentable  articles,  such 
as  fruit  juices  and  jellies. 
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