548 
PJiarmacentical  Meeting. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I  November,  1904. 
The  statements  regarding  hydrochloric  acid  were  extremely  illogi- 
cal, as  the  amount  which  is  present  in  gastric  juice,  0-2  per  cent.,  is 
not  sufficient  to  preserve  from  decay,  while  an  excess  of  HQ  in  the 
gastric  juice  does  prevent  the  action  of  the  enzymes. 
Those  who  had  not  followed  the  subject  closely  would  be  misled, 
too,  by  the  Doctor's  statements  regarding  salicylic  acid  in  fruits,  as 
if  the  acid  exists  there  at  all,  it  is  in  such  slight  proportions  as  to  be 
undetectable  by  the  ordinary  methods  of  analysis  when  testing  for 
preservatives,  and  is,  therefore,  a  negligible  factor. 
Prof.  Henry  Kraemer  said  that  it  seemed  to  him  that  physicians 
were  in  a  measure  responsible  for  the  confusion  that  exists  in 
regard  to  poisons,  as  they  have  failed  as  yet  to  define  what  con- 
stitutes a  poison.  (See  this  Journal,  1898,  p.  527.)  He  thought 
that  the  question  was  one  which  concerned  the  medical  profession 
especially,  and  should  be  referred  to  the  American  Physiological 
Association  or  to  a  committee  of  research  workers  on  animal 
physiology. 
He  said  that  many  kinds  of  food  could  be  preserved  by  simply 
heating,  but  that  commercial  conditions  were  such  that  manufac- 
turers put  their  goods  up  in  cans  and  bottles  in  quantities  which 
were  most  economical  to  the  consumer.  If  the  product  is  not  con- 
sumed at  once,  and  is  in  the  hands  of  the  poorer  class  of  people,  who 
have  no  ice-boxes  or  other  means  of  preventing  decomposition,  they 
are  liable,  especially  in  hot  weather,  to  lose  part  of  the  article,  which 
they  can  ill  afford,  unless  a  preservative  has  been  used.  Professor 
Kraemer  then  read  an  abstract  from  a  recent  number  of  the  Chemist 
and  Druggist  (October  8,  1904),  on  the  conviction  of  a  dealer  in 
Belfast  who  had  used  7-2  grains  of  salicylic  acid  per  pint  in  ginger 
wine,  which  conviction  the  writer  said  was  surprising  in  face  of  the 
evidence  and  previous  decisions  respecting  the  use  of  preservatives 
in  wine.  Dr.  T.  B.  Bradshaw,  lecturer  on  clinical  medicine  at  the 
University  of  Liverpool,  was  quoted  by  the  writer  as  having 
expressed  a  rational  view  of  the  matter,  as  follows : 
"  The  alleged  drawback  of  preservatives,  that  they  open  the 
way  for  dirty  and  fraudulent  practices,  and  make  it  difficult  to  teach 
care  and  cleanliness  to  the  poor,  can  have  but  little  weight  if  it  be 
true,  as  I  maintain,  that  they  keep  food  in  a  condition  fit  for  con- 
sumption, which  would  otherwise  have  to  be  thrown  away.  In  a 
community  in  which  probably  25  per  cent,  of  the  people  are  too 
