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these sugars—that is to say, glucose or "invert"-showed an exceptionally high percentage of arsenious oxide, the quantity present in some samples running as high as 2.06 per cent. This acid was made from pyrites and was supplied by Messrs. Nicholson & Sons to Messrs. Bostock & Co. from February until November in one year.

ANALYTICAL TESTS OF BEER SAMPLES.

The analysis of some samples of beer brewed from these sugars brought out startling revelations. The quantity of arsenic ran as high as 1.5 grains per gallon, while in one case it reached 3 grains per gallon. Under such circumstances there is no room left to wonder at the spread of an epidemic among the masses of the two greatest industrial districts in England, when its causes and its pathology have been so clearly and firmly established. While no accurate estimate of the number of people affected could be ascertained, it is generally presumed that 10,000 would be nearly cor

rect.

Before the pathology of the epidemic had been thoroughly understood hundreds of cases were treated as "chronic alcoholism," "cirrhosis of the liver," and various aggravated types of neuritis. It was about this time that a local practitioner brought the attention of the medical profession to a morbid condition found in many Manchester beer drinkers known as the "alcoholic heart."

CONTAMINATED TABLE SIRUPS.

Shortly after the discovery of arsenic in the brewing sugar of Messrs. Bostock & Co. the government inspectors found that the firm was about to place upon the market a new product in the form of a "table sirup," made from sugar "inverted" by Nicholson's sulphuric acid. This sirup was put up in two-pound tins, a large quantity of which had been sent to retail traders as trial samples. As good luck would have it, the sirup became solidified in the tins, through some accident in the process of manufacture, and all were returned. The analysis of Doctor McGowan, one of the experts to the commission, showed 1 grain of arsenic to each pound of this sirup. The whole stock, amounting to 14 tons, was thereupon destroyed.

ARSENICAL CONTAMINATION OF MALT.

In several instances it was found that beer manufactured by brewers using glucose, or "invert," other than Bostock's, contained arsenic. This led to closer examination on the part of the experts, which resulted in tracing the contamination to the malt. kiln where gas coke was used as fuel. The economy of the latter as a substitute for oven coke, or "picked" anthracite, led to its use

by maltsters in the remote districts of Yorkshire and other counties. The arsenic in the fumes of the gas coke was brought into direct contact with the malt, deposited on the grain, and subsequently conveyed to the fermenting tub. The method of treating malt in these kilns was primitive and careless; in the brushing or cleansing process, which is an important feature of malt preparation, this is especially true. In defense of these methods, it was argued that malt treated in this manner derives a certain flavor, which is imparted to the beer and is very much appreciated by consumers. Admitting this, and ruling out the use of gas coke, a suggestion was made that the fumes of the fire might be advantageously passed through a screen of lime at the exit, so that the arsenic passed off in combustion might be taken up and the malt thus protected against contamination. A number of experiments in this direction are now in progress where the reconstruction of the kilns becomes a matter of impossibility from an economic point of view. All the leading brewers in this country now manufacture their own malt.

ADULTERATION OF FOOD PRODUCTS.

Incidentally, the attention of the commissioners was directed to the subject of arsenical contamination of certain food products and its effect upon the public health. The dangers from this source through preservatives, mineral coloring matters, etc., are pointed out and the people are admonished to be on their guard against them. Coal-tar products, caramel, phosphoric acid and phosphates, boric acid and borates, yeast foods, tartaric and citric acids, iron oxides, and glycerin are specially scheduled under this head. There is probably no country in the world so much exposed to the pernicious consequences of food adulteration as England is to-day. This is the result of sweeping changes in the agricultural, economic, and social conditions which have taken place concurrently with the steady increase in population and the enormous demand for food supplies from outside sources. Nearly every quarter of the globe contributes its quota, while the science and resources of chemistry are being constantly ransacked to supply us with some new and subtle product as a substitute for food, or the real thing itself, patented by the law and promulgated by the press through advertisements. We have reached that stage when it is well-nigh impossible, when we sit down to a meal, to tell where our food comes from or what it contains; we take some of it, as we do medicine, and wait for results. London gets the best of everything; the poor provincial has to take what is left-the adulterated residue;

the jams, marmalades, sirups, confectionery, etc., contain glucose or cheap sugars, "inverted" or otherwise, which have their proportions of arsenic. The milk is either sterilized by air or neutralized by water, while the potted creams, which are now the fashion, are preserved like the sweets and fall into the same category. Even vinegar has not escaped, for here again the sulphuric acid figures in the "conversion" of the grain.

SUGAR AND SAUSAGE.

Demerara sugar, that innocent product of the colonies, has been found in an arseniated state from the practice of using phosphoric acid or chloride of tin to give it a "bloom," and sausage-makers have fallen into the habit of coloring their links with iron oxides that are particularly obnoxious to living tissues.

ENGLISH COFFEE.

Coffee is made up largely of chicory, which comes from Belgium, where the roots are dried in kilns heated by coke, and, like malt, exposed to the toxic products of combustion. I will venture to say that every American who has traveled in England will bear me out in the statement that a cup of pure coffee is absolutely unobtainable in ninety-nine out of every one hundred hotels in the country. Either as a food product or a stimulant, chicory is admitted to be inferior to coffee; yet the mixture is everywhere permitted and even sanctioned by law. An abominable compound of this nature is sold in the shops, while, in accordance with the requirements of an act of Parliament relating to the adulteration of food, the printed paper on the tin tells you what it is.

AMERICAN FOOD PRODUCTS ABROAD.

As far as American food products are concerned, I am happy to be able to state that the cry that was raised against them a few years ago has entirely subsided and their position in the market is now stronger than ever. In the case of American glucose, which is largely imported into England, not a single objection was raised by Lord Kelvin's commission. It stood the tests of the analysts in every instance where its purity was brought into question, while samples of the German article were found to contain slight traces of arsenic. I attribute our position in the food market, both here and elsewhere, to the free hand given to our agricultural department and the system of inspections which the latter has adopted and is carrying out with great success.

WM. P. SMYTH, Consul. TUNSTALL, ENGLAND, February 20, 1904.

EDITOR'S TABLE.

SANITARIAN, JUNE, 1904.

BURIED ALIVE-THE CORONER'S OFfice.

Exulting in the apparently good riddance, the Governor having signed the bill abolishing the coroner's office, THE SANITARIAN and the medical profession of the city generally, all too soon, a month ago wrote obituaries of the office. Being a city bill, however, it required submission to the Mayor and his approval before it could become a law. Wholly regardless of the obituaries the Mayor has since sat upon it-a la "crowner's quest." The still would-be coroners adduced testimony to their good office in contrast with the contradictory opinions expressed concerning the proposed new measure, insomuch that the Mayor disapproved the bill, and it is buried-the coroner's office still lives.

MORTALITY AND MORBIDITY REPORTS AND REVIEWS.

SIR HENRY THOMPSON, Bart, the distinguished surgeon and sanitarian, died at his home in London, April 18, 1904.

Sir Henry Thompson was surgeon extraordinary to the King of the Belgians, consulting surgeon to the University College Hospital, London, and Emeritus Professor of Clinical Surgeons. But he was more distinguished as sanitarian than surgeon, particularly with regard to "Diet in Relation to Age and Activity"—the subject of a treatise by him first published in 1886. Revised and enlarged (Frederick Warne & Co., London and New York) 1902. The earlier edition seemed to encourage the propagandists of vegetarianism, in so much that they claimed him as a disciple. The

later edition, however, is explicit in this regard; exposes the fallacies of the vegetarians, so called, advocates mixed diet, points out the errors and excesses in diet as the fruitful sources of disease and short life.

Sir Henry was born in Framingham, Suffolk, August 6, 1820. He was graduated in medicine at the University College, London, where he won honors. He was created a baronet in 1899. He was also the author of numerous papers on scientific and surgical subjects which are generally accepted as authoritative, and wrote two novels, "Charley Kingston's Aunt" and "All But." He was known also as a painter of ability and a deep student of astronomy.

STATE OF NEW YORK.-Monthly Bulletin, Department of Health, for March, 1904, 7,738,000: Total number of deaths, 14,308; annual death rate, 21.7; deaths under 1 year, 2,116; deaths I to 5 years, 1,123; deaths at 70 years and over, 2,828; deaths from cerebrospinal meningitis, 105; typhoid fever, 163; malarial diseases, 10; smallpox, 1; scarlet fever, 52; measles, 168; erysipelas, 73; whooping-cough, 50; croup and diphtheria, 252; diarrheal diseases, 182; consumption, 1,432; pneumonia, 2,011; acute respiratory diseases other than pneumonia, 1,072; puerperal diseases, 144; diseases of the digestive system (not acute diarrhea), 757; diseases of the urinary system, 1,040; diseases of the circulatory system, 1,458; diseases of the nervous system, 1,449; cancer, 492; accidents and violence, 619; old age, 660; general diseases not epidemic (except consumption and cancer), 572; unclassified, 1,442.

The largest number of deaths ever recorded in one month in this State. In twenty years covered by our records there have been fourteen months only in which the reported number of deaths has exceeded 12,000, and four times only has the monthly mortality reached 13,000; these were in January, 1890 and 1892; April, 1891, and July, 1892. July is uniformly the month in which the greatest number of deaths occur, and ordinarily there are between 11,000 and 12,000 deaths in July every year. But it is noteworthy that the periods of phenomenal mortality, when the number of deaths rises far above the ordinary for the month, occur in the winter or spring months. These extraordinary increases are mainly due to deaths from acute pulmonary diseases, which cause a far larger element of variability in mortality than do the diarrheal

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