54 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Juny, 1899. 
The National Provisioner, Chicago, 4th, 11th, and 18th February, reopens 
the question under the heading, “Is Boracic Acid Deadly ?” and numerous 
evidence is given to show that the drug is not deadly, which no one hitherto 
had tried to prove. But nothing new is brought forth, and some of the 
statements, as, for instance, that 10,000,000 lb. of cured meat treated with 
borax are eaten annually in Germany, and over 100,000,000 Tb. in England, 
have to be taken with more than the proverbial grain of salt, considering that 
the adulteration law is carried out so very strictly in Germany. 
The conclusions to be drawn from the foregoing remarks are very simple. 
Sooner or later the use of boracic acid (although it is not a deadly poison) as a 
preservative will be everywhere greatly restricted, if not entirely prohibited. 
There is not the slightest doubt that milk, butter, meat, fish, &c., can be 
preserved without the use of drugs. Cold storage is the simplest modern 
method of preservation of foods, and is applicable with equal advantage on a 
small or on a large scale. If, with cold storage as preservative, a previous 
scrupulous care as to cleanliness, inspection of meat and dairies, modern pro- 
cesses, such as pasteurization, &¢., go hand in hand, our products such as meat, 
butter, and other foods, can compete successfully with the products of other 
nations in the world’s market. 
The following is the article in the National Provisioner quoted by Mr. 
Briinnich :— 
IS BORACIC ACID DEADLY? 
M. de Cyon, the famous French chemist, made exhaustive experiments 
with boracic acids and meats. He added this acid to fresh food in doses up to 
12 grammes per day, which is ten times as much as is used in Jourdes’ 
process for preserving foods. He first exprimented with dogs, and they all 
fattened. His final conclusions were incorporated in the “ Annales @ Hygiene 
ee et de Medecine legale of the Academy of Science.” He says :—(L.) 
orax added to meat up to 12 grammes daily may be used for food purposes 
without causing the least disturbance in the general nutrition. (2.) Borax, 
substituted for common salt, increases the faculty of assimilating meat 
even when the diet is exclusively albuminous. 
Pure borax is free from albuminous and plumbic salts, as well as of 
carbonate of soda. It is this pure borax referred to by M. de Cyon. 
Professor Panum, professor of physiology at Copenhagen, made extensive 
and exhaustive experiments with heat and boric acid, with the result that he 
believes in the complete harmlessness of boracic acid, which he also says is not 
an acid, but a salt. These experiments were conducted to see whether the 
method of preserving meats and foods by borax, which is so popular with 
Scandianavians, was injurious to the public health. The Scandinavians are a 
pretty healthy race at that. In the Jourdes’ process of preserving meats with 
borax, the meat is not steeped in a saline solution. lts surface is lightly 
powdered over with chemically pure borax, from 1 to 2 grammes per kilo being 
used, “The meat remains in its normal state and retains all of its nutritive 
value,” these scientists say. 
After thorough examination and trial tests of boron salts or borax, the 
Sanitary Council of St. Petersburg, Russia, decided that borax or boracic acid 
contained nothing injurious to health. This learned body authorised the sale of 
borax and its acid for commercial and preserving purposes. 
Food kept in a solution of 5 per cent. of borax is tolerated perfectly well 
by the human system. 
One would think that such eminent chemists and scientists abroad, whose 
testimony is added to those of our own country, would be sufficient to clear the 
intelligent mind of its doubts as to the baleful effects of this simple antiseptic. — 
While the good old lady cries “horror!” in the next minute she washes her 
ulcerated mouth with a solution of boric acid, and cleanses that of her infant 
grandchild with the same solution. i 
