270 
Food  and  Drug  Adulteration. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1909. 
on  numerous  occasions  by  investigations  conducted  by  the  Dairy 
and  Food  Department  of  the  State,  and  while  the  use  of  injurious 
preservatives  has  been  almost  discontinued  in  consequence  of  cer- 
tain prosecutions  brought  by  the  latter  authorities,  in  which  im- 
prisonment was  the  punishment  inflicted  upon  the  violator,  there 
is  still  much  room  for  improvement  as  regards  the  enforcement 
of  a  law  prohibiting  the  watering  and  skimming  of  milk.  The 
Dairy  and  Food  Department  has  been  hampered  in  this  particular 
direction  by  the  fact  that  the  only  legislation  applicable  to  the 
subject  provides  that  the  penalty  shall  be  inflicted  only  upon  those 
who  "  knowingly  "  violate  the  law.  As  it  is  practically  impossible 
to  obtain  a  conviction  under  such  conditions,  the  fact  that  watered 
or  skimmed  milk  is  not  more  frequently  found  is  due  to  the  honesty 
of  the  large  majority  of  milk  dealers.  It  is  particularly  unfortunate, 
however,  that  most  of  the  instances  of  watered  or  skimmed  milk 
observed  in  the  work  of  the  Department  have  been  in  the  con- 
gested or  so-called  "  slum  "  sections  of  the  city,  where  the  struggle 
for  life  is  already  so  great  that  the  supplying  of  milk  which  has 
had  its  nourishing  constituents  either  partly  removed  or  diluted 
must  be  a  contributing  factor  in  the  high  mortality  of  these  sections 
of  our  city. 
Cake  is  not  a  necessary  article  of  food,  but  is  a  frequent  addi- 
tion to  the  dietary  of  a  large  proportion  of  our  population.  The 
substitution  of  artificial  yellow  coloring  matter  in  order  to  give 
the  appearance  of  richness  due  to  eggs,  in  imitation  of  the  home 
baked  product,  was  for  a  time  almost  stamped  out,  but  is  again 
being  practiced  to  a  greater  or  less  extent.  In  a  number  of  prose- 
cutions brought  by  the  Department  several  years  ago,  the  article  in 
question  was  chocolate  coated  cake  in  which  the  yellow  color  was 
due  to  coal-tar  color  and  the  chocolate  was  imitated  by  adding 
burnt  umber  to  the  icing — an  addition  of  a  mineral  substance  which 
was  not  only  a  deleterious  ingredient,  but  one  that  replaced  choco- 
late, a  substance  having  a  high  and  recognized  food  value.  In 
this  same  connection  might  be  mentioned  the  fact  that  instances 
have  been  frequently  found  in  which  chocolate  has  been  substituted 
in  great  part  by  starchy  materials  of  much  less  nutritive  value. 
The  recognized  food  value  of  sugar  has  led  to  its  increased 
use  in  recent  years,  but  there  has  also  arisen  a  class  of  synthetic 
or  purely  chemical  substances  whose  high  sweetening  power  has 
led  to  their  employment  as  substitutes  for  sugar  in  certain  articles 
