506  How  Food  Preservatives  Affect  Health.  {^4mbefhi9wra- 
HOW    FOOD   PRESERVATIVES   AFFECT  THE  PUBLIC 
HEALTH. 
By  R.  G.  Ecci.es. 
Every  intelligent  man  is  an  advocate  of  pure-food  laws  and  of 
their  enforcement.    To  advocate  the  use  of  preservatives  in  food 
is  to  advocate  in  behalf  of  pure  food.    Perishable  foods  subjected  to 
delay  in  other  than  cold-storage  transportation,  or  delay  in  packing 
in  the  absence  of  cold  storage,  cannot  reach  the  consumer  in  a 
pure  state  if  preservatives  are  not  used.     Food  may  reach  the 
consumer  relatively  pure  and  not    remain    so  until  consumed. 
Scarcely  a  month  passes  that  somebody  is  not  reported  killed  with 
impure  food  and  dozens  have  been  seriously  injured  by  it,  and 
always  because  that  food  did  not  contain  preservatives.     To  stop 
this  incessant  slaughter  of  innocent  people  is  the  object  of  advo- 
cates of  preservatives.     They  want  to  see  the  market  supplied 
with  food  that  will  not  kill  and  maim.    They  are  confident  that  for 
every  reported  case  of  virulent  ptomaine  poisoning  there  are  a  hun- 
dred mild  cases  never  heard  from.     Meat,  fish,  beans,  catsups  and 
sausages,  with  many  other  kinds  of  foods,  are  constant  carriers  of 
impurities  which  sacrifice  human  lives  and  cause  continuous  suffer- 
ing to  multitudes.    Such  impure  food  looks  well,  tastes  all  right, 
smells  as  if  fresh,  and  in  every  way  appears  to  be  good,  but  it  kills. 
It  is  in  a  condition  of  incipient  decay,  and  not  in  that  extreme  form 
of  decay  which  is  detectable.     The  spores  of  deadly  microbes  re- 
main harmless  until  a  little  warmth  nurses  them  into  vitality.  The 
heat  we  call  comfortable  for  a  room  is  all  that  is  needed  to  develop 
their  danger.     Let  there  be  no  ice  in  the  house,  or  let  the  maid 
leave  the  food  out  of  the  refrigerator  for  a  short  time,  and  human 
Jives  are  sacrificed. 
Delays  in  reaching  cold  storage,  or  in  reaching  the  packers,  when 
no  ice  is  available,  permits  a  first  crop  of  spores  to  grow  and  be 
sown  over  the  food.  Delays  in  putting  left-over  provisions  into  the 
kitchen  refrigerator  develop  the  poisons  along  with  a  second  crop 
and  whole  families  are  maimed  or  killed.  If  carriers  of  perishable 
foods,  instead  of  being  forbidden  by  law  to  use  preservatives  on 
such  foods,  when  they  are  delayed  and  cannot  be  hurried  into  a  re- 
frigerator, were  compelled  to  use  these  agents  before  decay  had  a 
chance  to  start,  there  would  probably  be  fewer  deaths  from  ptomaine 
