rooms, and make both college and sanitary work increasingly valuable.

If, on the other hand, the State should prefer to have the field work directed from outside the college, yet the outside directorate. should be indissolubly linked to the college laboratory, so that the two fields of work shall be mutually helpful, and that the greatest possible benefit may be reaped by the State. Our laboratories are already provided by the State, so that that part of the work can be accomplished here at little or no expense and to far better purpose than elsewhere.

Even if we could spare time to answer every call throughout the State, under present arrangements, we would come without any authority to act for the State, and apart from private action, no step could be taken to prevent the diffusion of even the most subtle or dangerous contagion, until the properly authorized official could be sent from Albany. In other words, every step would have to be taken twice and at double expense.

In the case of important and extraordinary outbreaks, we would not let this consideration stand in the way; and when the acting government official calls upon us we shall do our best to respond and co-operate promptly, yet it does not seem best in ordinary cases to spend the government money entrusted to us to do a work that must all be done over again before it can have any legal recognition.

We shall always be thankful to parties who may inform us of extraordinary cases or of dangerous outbreaks, and (wherever it can be done to advantage) to co-operate in sanitary work. I may add that if your club should at any time desire a talk on one of these subjects, one of us will take pleasure in meeting with you for that purpose. JAMES LAW.

Very respectfully,

The letter was the subject of a general discussion, in which those who participated evidenced a desire to understand the matter more fully, both for their own sake and that of their patrons; as one of the speakers said: "Tuberculosis in the human family is said by some to exist only through infection from the bovine family, therefore the question is of vital importance to all users of milk and other dairy products."

MILK POLLUTION.

Dr. Huff, Inspector of Animals and Dairies of the Board of Health of Rome, N. Y., at the regular monthly meeting of the board, April 1, read a paper on "The Inspection of Animals and Dairies," of which the following is an abstract:

Consumers of milk have often asked me what was the cause of a peculiar odor, characteristic of new milk that is usually considered as being one of the necessary elements of milk? My observation leads me to believe that nine-tenths of the so-called "animal odor" is caused by imperfect circulation in the skin of the animal and by particles of dung falling into the pail of milk. Cattle are milked in stables reeking with filth, and with swarms of flies congregated upon the strainer that is placed upon the can, and the milk is filtered over the carcasses of drowned flies that may have just been feeding upon the sputa of a consumptive or regaling themselves upon other putrid or offensive matter, and their excrement is washed into the can of milk to be sold to the public. The udder is frequently washed by dipping the hand into the milk that is in the pail, or by milking into the hand and then washing the teat with the milk. Very seldom will one see the udder washed with clean water or wiped with a clean cloth. And it is said that in cases after the cow had put her foot into the pail half full of milk, the milk went in with the rest and the consumer was none the wiser. A very small percentage of dairy farms are supplied with water of good quality and sufficient quantity. As a healthy cow will consume from 60 to 100 pounds of water per diem, the influence that a supply deficient in quantity and quality would have upon the milk is obvious. It is not an uncommon thing to see the drainage from the stable passing into the stream from which the cows drink. Cows confined to the stable require a space of 800 square feet each to obtain sufficient oxygen to aerate the blood properly, but we usually see cattle huddled together in as close a space as possible, generally allowing each cow about 275 to 300 square feet, where they are compelled to breathe and rebreathe the contaminated atmosphere because the dairyman informs us he can get more milk from them if they are kept close together. The majority of stables are built as cheaply as possible, and are roughly finished inside and out, furnishing nooks and crannies for dirt to

locate and to propagate disease. The floor frequently consists of twelve-inch planks, laid side by side, just where the hind feet of the cows are placed and the milker stands when milking, and a trench about a foot wide behind the cows for the excrement to fall into. There is not one stable in a hundred that has any way of flushing, and no greater percentage has any system of drainage. There are stables that have stood for years upon the same ground and have contained hundreds of cows, and all the liquid manure made in them has been allowed to soak into the ground and there remain. There has been so much said about milk containing germs of disease that it seems almost unnecessary to mention the fact, but we are so forcibly reminded that dirt and filth are the abiding places of disease and that cleanliness is the surest guide to health, that your attention is again called to it and you are again warned of the danger that exists. The dairyman is a citizen and entitled to all kindness and courtesy, and in making changes in the arrangement of stables and methods of handling the product, we should remember that we are in a position to be of great assistance or to work a cruel hardship. We should endeavor to make changes in a kindly manner, but with all the firmness that a public servant should have. No honest dairyman should or would object to a strict observance of sanitary measures, but the dishonest dairyman must be controlled.

A MACHINE TO MAGNIFY ODOKS.--A machine which will magnify odors, just as the microphone does sound, is said to have been invented by a Binghamton, N. Y., genius. The story is rather Munchausenish; but if it be true, the invertor has evidently made a mistake. What the general public wants is a machine that will seize an able-bodied smell, like that of Limberger cheese or Brooklyn water, and instantly reduce it to zero. Perhaps the Binghamton man's device will do this already if it be run backward. Why not try the experiment?

JAM IT.-At Frank's house they had quince jam for supper, but Frankie had been ill, so his mother said to him: "Frank, you cannot have any jam. It will make you sick, and then you might die." Frank took this like a little man until he saw his mother help herself to jam the second time. Then he pushed his plate slowly toward the forbidden dish and said with deliberation: "Well, if you are going to die, I might as well die too. Gimme some!"

BORIC ACID AS A FOOD PRESERVATIVE.

At a recent meeting of the San Francisco Board of Health, Dr. W. T. Wenzell, the City Chemist, reported having analyzed twenty-three samples of tomato catsup. Twenty-one of these were found to contain salicylic acid, and two boracic (or boric) acid. The law forbids the use of any other than food substances in such preparations for the table-hence the presence of these articles, though added for the purpose of preservation and not adulteration, was unlawful.

The value of the crusade against food adulteration can hardly be overestimated. Its success, however, is largely dependent upon the intelligent discrimination made between active and dangerous agents, and those which are inert and innocent.

Salicylic acid has become somewhat widely known as a remedy for certain kinds of rheumatism, and is so active a medicinal agent as to render its free use unsafe except when given under direction of a physician.

Boric (or boracic) acid should in no sense be associated with salicylic. It is an altogether different article, though less known to the medical profession, because less used as a medicine. For preservative uses, however, it has been long in use in England and Germany, and consequently the profession there are much more familiar with its action and uses.

Dr. Binswanger, in an essay especially treating of the physiological effects of boric acid, to which the first prize was awarded by the medical faculty of Munich in 1844, says of boric acid:

"It possesses very slight physiological properties. In small doses it becomes speedily absorbed, and is eliminated by the kidneys, whose secretion is promoted. As a medicine it has less value than carbonic acid, to which it is analogous."

Cullen, a great medical authority of the last century, gave it in large doses without observing that it produced any effect on the human body.

Coming down to more recent authorities, the following extracts from a report made in January, 1892, by the late Dr. Redwood, emeritus professor of chemistry to the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, on the use of antiseptics for the preservation of food:

"A question has recently been raised with reference to the use of boric acid and its preparations, for the purpose of preserving certain articles of food from the decomposition to which they are naturally subject, and some opinions have been expressed which are unfavorable to the use of such preservative agents. It is a very important fact, however, in connection with this subject that the statements which have been made in condemnation of the use of boric acid preservatives are in no instances founded on direct observation of any ill effects that have been traced to such use.

"The objections which have been urged are merely founded on assumptions of a more or less speculative nature. The strongest of them are mere matters of opinion, with no well defined evidence, and more frequently they partake of the character of precautionary guards against the possible abuse of a practice if left in unskilled hands. That a careful oversight should be exercised and strict and authoritative checks imposed with reference to the nature of the preservatives, and the extent to which they may be applied, will be freely admitted by all reasonable persons. It is also, no doubt, desirable that strict and careful observation will be made. by competent medical authorities with the view of ascertaining whether any, if so what, ill effects may result, not only from the use of boric acid, but also of other preservative agents which might be used for a similar purpose.

"Boric acid has hitherto been looked upon as the most unobjectionable of the substances that have been tried. It possesses characteristics and properties which peculiarly adapt it for this particular purpose. It is one of the mildest of all known acids, being in this respect comparable to carbonic acid, which is contained in atmospheric air and in all good, potable waters. In fact, boric acid, although it bears the name of an acid, has but few of the properties of that class of compounds. Unlike most other acids, it is devoid of a sour taste or acrid and corrosive action when applied to the skin. It may be put into the mouth in its most concentrated form, without any ill effects and with merely a slightly bitter taste. Like carbonic acid, it combines with the alkalies without neutralizing the alkalinty of definite compounds so produced, borax, which is an alkaline salt, being the most important of these. This salt, which owes its efficacy partly to boric acid and partly to the soda with which that acid is combined, is frequently employed as a topical application for allaying irritation of the skin, and is thus often applied to the mouths of young children as an approved remedy for thrush and other similar affections.