168  Use  of  Preservatives  in  Foods.  {AmAp°rnr;i906arm" 
he  may  be  suffering  from  those  symptoms  while  he  himself  and  his 
medical  man  are  totally  in  the  dark  in  regard  to  the  cause  of  the 
symptoms,  whereas  if  he  is  notified  that  the  milk  or  other  food 
which  he  is  taking  contains  a  certain  proportion  of  salicylic  acid  the 
attention  of  the  medical  man  would  probably  be  at  once  directed 
to  the  possibility  of  salicylic  acid  having  been  the  cause  of  the 
symptoms." 
The  above  extract  from  the  testimony  before  the  Departmental 
Committee  it  seems  to  me  covers  the  whole  ground  in  a  nutshell. 
The  reason  that  Sir  Lauder  Brunton  is  in  favor  of  labeling  foods 
which  contain  preservatives  is  to  enable  the  medical  men  in  cases  of 
disease  to  ascertain  what  the  causes  of  this  disease  have  been.  Cer- 
tainly a  more  sweeping  statement  respecting  the  harmful  quality  of 
preservatives  cannot  be  found  in  medical  literature  and  this  opinion 
of  his  commends  itself  strongly  to  the  medical  fraternity. 
I  have  briefly  summarized  the  present  state  of  the  question  touch- 
ing the  use  of  preservatives  in  foods.  I  have  not  mentioned,  how- 
ever, the  rights  of  that  vast  majority  of  consumers  who  desire  that 
their  foods  shall  not  be  treated  with  any  chemical  antiseptic  of  any 
description.  The  rights  of  the  consumer,  in  my  opinion,  are  para- 
mount to  those  of  trade,  and  the  people  of  this  country  who  desire 
to  eat  their  foods  without  chemical  antiseptics  surely  ought  to  have 
the  privilege  of  doing  so.  The  proposition,  it  seems  to  me,  has  be- 
come a  purely  ethical  one.  It  is  simply  this  :  On  the  one  hand,  shall 
a  few  men  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  food  products,  in  order 
that  they  may  increase  their  profits  by  a  small  sum,  be  permitted  to 
use  upon  foods  which  enter  into  common  consumption  chemical 
preservatives  which  the  great  mass  of  the  people  will  either  have 
to  eat  or  do  without  the  articles  in  question  ?  On  the  other  hand, 
shall  the  rights  of  the  great  mass  of  consumers  be  conserved  so 
that  in  the  purchase  of  food  products  they  may  be  certain  that  they 
do  not  contain  any  drugs  or  chemicals  and  that  they  are  pure  and 
wholesome  ? 
We  have  now  in  this  country  a  wave  of  ethical  reform  which  I 
hope  may  not  recede  for  a  long  time.  The  people  are  awakened 
to  a  sense  of  their  rights  and  also  to  a  conception  of  the  frauds  of 
every  description  which  have  been  so  persistently  practised  upon 
them.  No  one  will  deny  any  citizen  the  right  to  use  such  chemical 
preservatives  as  he  pleases  in  his  own  food.    He  can  have  salt-cel- 
