510  How  Food  Preservatives  Affect  Health.     { AN0VJembef .wof ' 
In  their  strongest  condition,  boric,  benzoic  and  salicylic  acids 
are  much  weaker  than  multitudes  of  substances  used  daily  in  our 
foods  when  they  are  concentrated.  Take  the  essences;  many 
of  them  are  far  more  potent.  Take  the  spices ;  they,  too,  are 
more  potent.  Take  mustard ;  it  is  immensely  more  potent. 
Take  the  phenols  of  smoked  meats  and  fish ;  they  are  much 
more  potent.  Take  the  flavors  of  butter,  of  all  kinds  of  fruits, 
of  cheese,  and  some  of  them  are  so  vastly  more  toxic  that  there 
could  be  no  comparison  between  them.  Apply  the  Judge's  charge 
to  his  jury  to  all  of  these  and  where  would  we  be?  No  one 
dare  sell  butter,  cheese,  mustard,  pepper,  apples,  pears,  grapes, 
bananas,  pies,  cakes,  ice  cream,  candies,  any  fruit,  any  bread  con- 
taining fruit,  any  article  containing  a  flavoring  ingredient,  etc.  In 
fact,  he  would  close  the  market  upon  nearly  everything  that  civil- 
ized man  wants  to  eat.  What  a  blessing  it  is  that  some  men  are 
not  consistent.  Just  the  same,  however,  the  Judge  has  estab- 
lished a  precedent  that  makes  every  dealer  in  almost  every  kind  of 
pastry,  confectionery,  dairy  products  and  fruits,  violators  of  the  laws 
of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania. 
Prior  to  the  census  of  1900  your  commissioners  allowed  you  free- 
dom. As  a  result,  the  vital  statistics  of  that  census  gave  your 
State  a  favorable  showing.  In  Minnesota,  Michigan,  Wisconsin, 
Illinois  and  the  Dakotas  no  such  freedom  was  permitted.  These  States 
forbade  and  punished  all  who  used  such  preservatives.  If  you  care 
to  take  the  trouble  to  look  up  the  statistics  of  the  results,  you  can 
find  them  on  page  ccxxvi  of  Vol.  Ill,  Part  I,  Twelfth  Census  of  the 
United  States.  On  that  page  you  will  find  a  table  giving  the  death 
rates  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States  from  diseases  of  the  digestive 
system.  As  this  kind  of  diseases  comes  from  poisonous  germs  in 
food  and  drink,  you  can  see  how  applicable  the  study  of  such  a  table 
is  to  this  discussion.  There  you  will  learn  that  in  grand  groups  19 
and  16  the  death  rates  were  far  higher  than  in  any  of  the  remaining 
groups.  On  pages  cviii  and  cix  it  will  be  seen  that  these  grand 
divisions  are  made  up  of  the  States  where  the  commissioner's 
present  methods  were  tried  before  the  census  and  are  still  being 
blindly  pursued.  The  region  that  gives  the  lowest  rate  is  a  region 
of  factories  where  the  dinner  pail  is  the  ice-box,  and  where  without 
preservatives  their  food  could  not  keep  till  consumed.    The  major- 
