AmAp?n:?m?w'}        Use  of  Preservatives  in  Foods.  155 
serve  the  contents  of  the  bottle  after  opening  until  they  were 
entirely  consumed. 
The  experts  were  not  agreed  among  themselves  as  to  the  proper 
quantities  of  antiseptics  to  be  admitted  nor  as  to  the  kind  of  anti- 
septics which  should  be  used.  In  general,  they  were  opposed  to 
the  use  of  salicylic  acid,  sulphurous  acid  and  formaldehyde,  and 
favored  the  use  of  boric  acid  and  benzoic  acid.  No  satisfactory 
reasons  were  forthcoming  for  discriminating  between  these  acids, 
save  that  the  manufacturers  themselves  had  generally  abandoned 
the  use  of  all  the  other  preservatives  except  these  two. 
The  expert  testimony  brought  out  the  well-known  fact  that  ben- 
zoic acid,  especially,  was  contained  in  many  food  products  and  was 
therefore  to  be  considered  as  a  normal  food  constituent.  With  the 
exception  of  the  cranberry,  it  appeared  that  no  ordinary  food  con- 
tained  anything  more  than  a  mere  trace  of  benzoic  acid.  One  of 
the  principal  arguments  in  favor  of  the  wholesomeness  of  benzoic 
acid  was  based  upon  the  fact  that  it  occurred  naturally  in  the  cran- 
berry. When  it  was  represented  to  the  Committee  that  the  same 
logical  conclusion  would  apply  to  the  use  of  alum,  arsenic,  copper 
and  hydrocyanic  acid  in  foods,  the  untenability  of  the  position 
maintained  by  these  experts  was  at  once  brought  out.  One  of  the 
experts,  Dr.  Eccles,  maintained  that  the  exclusion  of  preservatives 
from  foods  was  the  cause  of  the  high  death-rate  in  Berlin  and  South 
Dakota.  The  data  which  he  presented  in  support  of  this  contention 
did  not  appear  to  be  of  a  very  conclusive  character,  and,  as  regards 
North  Dakota,  these  data  were  shown  to  be  wholly  erroneous  by 
Professor  Ladd,  the  State  Dairy  and  Food  Commissioner  of  that 
State,  not  in  a  paper  presented  to  the  Committee  but  in  an  answer 
to  the  same  argument  of  Dr.  Eccles  previously  published.  The 
most  powerful  support  of  the  argument  in  favor  of  the  use  of  anti- 
septics was  given  in  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Vaughan.  Dr.  Vaughan 
stated  in  his  testimony  (page  65)  the  following: — 
"  I  am  sure  that  benzoic  acid  in  the  quantities  in  which  it  is  used 
in  tomato  catsup,  sweet  pickles,  etc  ,  one  part  to  1200  or  2000,  does 
not  do  any  harm.  I  should  be  opposed  to  the  use  of  formaldehyde 
in  milk  in  any  quantity  or  the  use  of  any  other  preservatives  in 
milk.  I  have  testified  repeatedly  against  the  use  of  sulphite  of  soda 
on  hamburger  steaks." 
