156  Use  of  Preservatives  in  Foods.  {AmAprUii;5o6arm' 
Again  on  page  66,  referring  to  our  own  experiments  in  Washing- 
ton, he  says : — 
"  But  they  have  not  shown  that  boric  acid  in  the  small  quantities 
which  should  be  used  as  a  preservative,  if  used  at  all,  has  any  effect 
on  the  animal  body." 
Mr.  Adamson. — What  do  you  mean  by  small  quantities  ? 
Mr.  Vaughan. — I  mean  one-half  of  one  per  cent. 
When  asked  by  Mr.  Mann  how  much  benzoic  acid  you  can  eat 
Mr.  Vaughan  stated  (page  72) : — 
"  I  would  have  to  answer  only  in  a  general  way,  and  say  a  grain 
or  two,  I  am  sure,  taken  day  by  day  for  one's  life,  would  not  do  one 
any  harm." 
Mr.  Mann. — Do  you  mean  one  grain  or  two  grains? 
Mr.  Vaughan. — One  grain. 
Mr.  Mann. — Would  two  grains  do  any  harm  ? 
Mr.  Vaughan. — Well,  I  do  not  know.  I  should  say  one  grain 
would  be  perfectly  safe.  I  do  not  know  whether  two  grains  would 
be  or  not. 
It  seems  that  the  real  reason  or  reasons  which  should  have  been 
advanced  before  the  Committee  were  masked  somewhat  by  the  con- 
tentions outlined  above.  There  is  no  doubt  of  the  fact  that  it  is  far 
cheaper  and  more  convenient  to  produce  certain  food  products  with 
the  aid  of  chemical  preservatives  than  it  is  to  preserve  them  in  any 
other  way,  and  the  actual  reason  which  is  behind  all  this  contention 
of  the  manufacturers  and  experts  is  the  production  of  a  cheaper 
quality  of  goods.  There  can  be  no  objection  to  this  desire  it 
properly  carried  out,  but  in  the  securing  of  the  cheaper  varieties  it 
hardly  seems  fair  to  threaten  the  whole  list  of  foods  with  adultera- 
tion. The  most  disingenuous  of  all  the  arguments  presented  was 
that  of  the  packers  of  codfish,  who  claimed  immunity  from  the  pro- 
visions of  any  act  under  the  specious  guise  of  requiring  that  the 
judgment  which  is  to  be  pronounced  upon  a  product  to  which  the 
external  application  of  a  preservative  is  made  and  which  requires  to 
be  macerated  or  soaked  before  use,  should  be  pronounced  only  at 
the  time  the  material  was  fit  for  consumption  and  not  in  the  state 
in  which  it  entered  the  market.  This  contention  had  such  powerful 
influence  as  to  meet  with  approval  on  the  part  of  both  the  Senate 
and  the  House,  and  is  embodied  in  a  provision  of  the  bill  covering 
the  points,  as  stated  above.    Apparently,  it  might  seem  that  this 
