ANoVimbef,bim"}     How  Food  Preservatives  Affect  Health.  509 
hydrochloric  acid  paralyzed  (?)  the  erments  of  digestion,  and  if  it 
did  not  enter  our  stomachs,  we  would  all  soon  be  dead  men.  If  such 
logic  was  sound,  there  would  not  be  a  living  man  or  vertebrate  ani- 
mal on  this  earth.  Yet,  this  is  the  kind  of  reasoning  that  has  led  to 
the  swearing  in  court  that  salicylic  acid  is  dangerous  to  health  and 
a  poison.  It  has  had  men  fined  and  has  wrecked  many  a  substan- 
tial and  useful  industry  in  this  and  other  countries.  It  is  threaten- 
ing you  pharmacists  to-day  with  fines  and  imprisonments.  Salicylic 
acid  has  been  chosen  as  the  special  target  of  attack  because,  as  the 
author  of  the  above  reasoning  elsewhere  says,  "  on  account  of  its 
cheapness  and  activity  it  may  be  called  the  universal  preservative  " 
(lecture  on  "  Living  a  Hundred  Years,"  Chicago  Record,  verbatim 
report,  February  28,  1901).  Its  methyl  ester  is  found  in  hundreds  of 
plants  from  the  most  diverse  botanic  orders.  Most  fruits  contain 
it.  Nature  has  thus  put  it  into  our  food.  In  this  respect  it  is  like 
benzoic  acid.  I  defy  any  one  of  them,  if  he  likewise  dares  to  claim 
that  vinegar  is  not  a  poison,  to  put  the  matter  to  the  test  of  a  public 
experiment  with  me.  If  vinegar  is  a  poison,  then  the  Judge's  ruling 
makes  it  a  crime  for  any  person  to  add  vinegar  to  any  kind  of  food 
in  this  State.  Will  the  commissioner  be  consistent  and  just? 
Will  he  punish  with  fines  every  person  who  is  selling  pickles  or 
mustard,  catsup  or  relishes,  because  they  contain  vinegar  ?  The 
acid  of  vinegar  in  its  pure  state  is,  according  to  the  best  authorities 
in  therapeutics,  eight  times  stronger  than  salicylic  acid  in  its  pure 
state.  Is  it  just  to  punish  the  men  who  use  the  weaker  sub- 
stance and  permit  those  who  use  the  stronger  to  escape 
unscathed  ?  If  the  commissioner  doubts  the  testimony  of  works 
on  therapeutics  as  regards  the  comparative  toxicity  of  these  two 
substances,  will  he  test  the  matter  experimentally?  I  will 
begin  with  a  grain  of  salicylic  acid  at  a  dose.  After  I  have  taken 
it,  let  him  then  take  a  grain  of  the  pure  acid  of  vinegar.  Let 
us  each  day  increase  our  doses  by  an  extra  grain,  and  continue 
till  one  or  other  of  us  cries  "  enough !  "  In  this  way  the  sub- 
stances can  tell  their  own  tale.  If  salicylic  acid  is  a  poison,  then 
the  acid  of  grapes,  the  acid  of  lemons,  the  acid  of  all  kinds  of  fruits, 
the  acid  of  sauer  kraut,  and  the  acid  of  vinegar  must  one  and  all  be 
called  poisons.  They  are  all  pronounced  stronger  than  salicylic 
acid  ;  not  by  one  standard  work  on  therapeutics,  but  by  every  such 
book  published  in  the  world  that  I  have  been  able  to  consult. 
