is present, to-day, in this city a number of prominent millers with the object of securing some protection in their business against the adulteration of wheat flour with flour made from Indian corn, or corn starch. You may go into the market of this city to-day, and you will probably not find a single case of wheat flour adulteration. Again we have heard the old story of sand in the sugar. That is always something to laugh at. In fact, I doubt if you could find in the whole United States to day a single case of this character. That such adulterations do exist is undoubtedly true, but we ought all to disabuse ourselves of the idea that everything is adulterated and that every article of food and every article of drink is open to suspicion. Granting all this, the argument in favor of pure food remains unshaken. There is no doubt of the fact that adulteration is practiced to an alarming extent in some branches. I believe that it would be difficult to find an article of food that had not been mixed or adulterated in some way at some time. I think the best way I can present this subject is to show you some of the samples we have examined which were purchased in the open market. The actual article before you is a better argument than any possible explanation could be. Simply at random, because I have not had time to make any arrangement, I shall show you some of the kinds of adulteration which have been found in our work, and shall explain in a few words the nature. In the first place let us look at the canned goods of commerce. There are a great many ways of preserving foods. One way, the most reprehensible, is to add to the food some chemical which prevents the activity of the germs that cause decay. All decay of organic bodies is caused by the activity of certain germs. If you can destroy their activity, kill the germs, if you can secure the condition which is unfavorable to their activity, the food will be preserved. There are a great many chemical substances which have the power of either destroying the life of the germ or preventing its development, hence the simplest and cheapest way of preserving foods is by the use of some such substance. The cheapest of these bodies is salicylic acid. This is one of the most ordinary articles employed in liquid bodies, or bodies carrying a large quantity of liquid, as, for instance, preserved green peas, beans, etc. This method is especially practiced with wines, beers, and ciders. It is a common thing where these bodies are to be preserved to add salicylic acid or similar substances. A good place to find these adulterations is in a Pure Food Exhibition. (Laughter.) Many of the articles we have examined were obtained from Pure Food Exhibits. The instance which I have in view just now I do not happen to have a sample here-relates to a Pure Food Exhibit. Not many years ago, I came across an exhibition of unfermented wine, especially designed for invalids and communion services. This exhibit was advertised as unfermented juice of the grape, and had a flaming advertisement saying it was pure and unadulterated. I secured a sample and had it examined, and I do not think I ever in my life found a sample which had so large a percentage of salicylic acid in it. It evidently grew on a peculiar grape vine. This vine grew in the state of New Jersey, and I believe we have some delegates from New Jersey. It was doubtless grafted on a willow. (Laughter.) Not only is it necessary to have the goods preserved but it is equally as essential to preserve the proper color. We find this is especially so with the tomatoes and bodies of that kind, where the color is an important article. Many of you may be surprised to know how much store is placed upon the color of an article, and rightly, so. It is a great thing. We have many coloring matters, and I am not here to condemn the use of them. I believe in coloring if it is not injurious to health, but if we use a poisonous body, it is different. Probably a few drops of coloring matter are not to be objected to on account of health. Another instance of color that we have found was in the preservation of peas, and beans. Look at the beautiful green peas, and beans! Heat them, and put in a can of this kind for a while, and you will find that the color will fade. This beautiful green will begin to disappear, and a yellow color will be seen. These articles are not then so attractive to the appetite, and it is therefore important that this color should be preserved. There is a very effective way of preserving it, by simply adding some substance that will keep it from fading. Usu The ally salts of copper are used, and these salts preserve the color. question is, how far can salts of copper be used with safety? Personally I do not object to taking a little copper. I am not afraid to eat a little of that kind of material. There may be persons who do object to it, and those should be protected against the use of vegetables of this kind, not because they will hurt a strong man, but if you are ill, it may be that the copper will injure you. I can take a dose of salicylic acid and it will not injure me, but it might injure another. I do not think we should forbid the coloring of beans and peas, or other vegetables. I think it is an excellent procedure, but it should be known and stated that such a coloring matter has been used, so that the person who purchases them may know what he is buying. We have determined the actual amount of copper found in these samples and find it not enough to produce any injurious results. From another point of view it may be said that we do not want such goods sent to our foreign markets. Our fruits have been excluded from foreign markets. Our dried fruits have also been excluded on the alleged ground, and perhaps a truthful one, that they contain zinc. Zinc often exists in the soils. Fruits grown on soils containing zinc may actually have zinc in them. The Department had an investigation some years ago into this question and found the trays upon which the fruit had been dried contained a less amount of zinc than before the fruit was placed upon them. It is evident that zinc gets into the dried fruits from the galvanized trays in which they are desiccated. The objection to the introduction of our fruits, based upon the statement that they contained zinc in sufficient quantities to injure health fell to the ground, but it was sufficient to exclude those fruits from several foreign markets. To remedy this, the suggestion was made by the Department that in the future zinc trays be dispensed with altogether. We suggested that the fruit dealers use alluminum trays. The use of soldering in preserving and the use of lead tops are objectionable. In the contact of the fruit with the lead top, a certain amount of lead is introduced in the preserved goods. Lead is highly objectionable. It has what the physicians term a cumulative effect, so by taking a little at a time, day by day, it accumulates, and finally produces injurious results. Lead in small quantities is objectionable. The law should provide that this substance should not be used in any way about fruit. Solder is often used in a careless way. Little bullets are found in the material, and these may be dissolved, and thus lead is introduced into the contents of the can. Again the composition of the can itself should be carefully observed. No law in this country, no national or state law, says anything about the material of the package holding the preserved fruit, or how it should be made. Usually cans are made of tin, that is, iron covered with tin. Nearly all tin contains lead, some a great deal, more than others. We have examined the tinning of a great many cans, and have found as high as 13% of lead (showing a sample.) Entirely too much because a material containing so much lead is very apt to yield a trace or more to the contents of the can. In Europe, regulations are enforced in regard to this matter, and I hope some may be introduced into this country. In very many places the use of the tin containing more than 1% of lead is prohibited. We should say that the can should be made of tin which is as pure as possible. In regard to the honey question: Honey is one of the products that is very much adulterated, especially in the liquid state. I do not knoм the percentage of the adulteration, yet it is large. We have a material which is particularly constituted for the adulteration of liquid honey, It has the same sweet taste,-the liquid glucose. For many years honey has been largely adulterated with liquid glucose, although the practice is not so general now as formerly. It is the very thing to add, and is so harmless that it is no wonder it is largely used in the adulteration of honey. This is a material (exhibiting it) composed nearly altogether of liquid glucose, but glucose is not the only form of adulteration. Chemists can easily detect it. There are other forms of adulteration, more difficult to detect. By making a syrup out of sugar cane, and adulterating honey with this article, there is formed a mixture which can be detected only with great difficulty by chemical means, from real honey. There are several ways of effecting this sophistication. You can invert the sugar in large quantities in the laboratory, or you can feed it to the bees and let them invert it. It is common practice to feed bees during the season when they are not active on sugar, and I have heard lively discussions about how far that should be practiced. In point of fact, what the bees gather on the flowers is nothing but sugar that has been inverted by the natural process. So whether they get it from the natural process or not, the honey we have is simply inverted cane sugar, which we use every day, together with the properties it acquires while in the organism of the bee. Another thing I find largely adulterated is salad oil. There is an immense amount of adulteration of this article. Olive oil is perhaps the best, but sun-flower oil will make a most excellent salad dressing We have examined samples of sun flower oil which I doubt if an expert could tell from olive oil. Cotton oil is also good. I do not object to the use of any of these oils for salad dressing, but what I do object to is to pay 40 cents for a bottle of this sun flower oil or cotton oil, when I think I am buying olive oil. A great many persons do not like to use pure pepper or pure mustard, they prefer to have it diluted. Manufacturers have therefore assumed from this fact that everybody wants condiments in this shape, so I believe condiments are the most generally adulterated of all food products. I do not think you could go into a hundred stores in this city and buy a hundred samples of condiments, and get 25 of them that are pure and free from adulteration. These fillers, (showing them) are made to imitate the color of the natural condiments. I have no objection to anybody asking for this sample, but do not sell this material for pure pepper and pure spices. There is where the fraud comes in. Here are colors for preserved meats. (Showing a large number of colors.) Preserved meats of all kinds are quite extensively colored. Delegate: Are those colors harmless? Dr. Wiley: I do not know but that they are in the proportions in which they are used, but there ought to be no fraud practiced in any manner. Meat should be well ripened. Games and meats ought always to be ripe before they are used. A great many people cook their meats and game immediately after the animals are killed. That is no way to do. A chicken should be hung up until tender; otherwise it is green. Not long ago I was shown through the most famous restaurant in Boston, where they prepare food that is famous all over the world, and I was told by the proprietor that they never put a piece of meat on the table until they had kept it at least three weeks and this in addition to the time it had been kept before they got it. You can never have a good piece of beef if you eat it fresh. The next thing I shall speak of is coffee. We all know that ground coffee and coffee essences often contain things that do not grow on the coffee tree. We are firm in our belief that if we buy the berries themselves we will secure the pure article. I have samples of supposed coffee berries selected in the open market, and no one of them ever saw a coffee tree; all are artificial. We have found as much as 25% of adulteration in some samples of coffee bought in the open market. These artificial berries are made in large quantities, and chicory also, is greatly used in adulterating coffee. I do not object to drinking some chickory for breakfast, and the coffee one gets in France is not all coffee. They make there a mixture of chicory and coffee. I like a mixture of that kind, and chicory gives it body and flavor. I think breakfast coffee is greatly improved by the judicious addition of chicory, but we do not want to buy chicory and coffee mixed as pure coffee, because chicory is very much cheaper. However, we ought to use more chicory than we do in this country. Roasted cereals also make good substitutes for coffee. Delegate: I should like to have you touch upon the subject of tea. Dr Wiley: We have made a great many examinations of tea. I do not know how many hundreds of samples, and we have only in one or two instances discovered any leaves except tea leaves One trouble is some of it has been used before we get it. Another trouble is what is called facing. That is done to increase the weight, and improve the col or. A substance is added to give color and weight. I do not know whether the custom official would admit a faced tea or not. I doubt if any considerable quantity of leaves which are not tea leaves is sent into this country. There are, parts of the United States where we can grow tea, and we may have a place to grow coffee in the near future. (Applause.) I hope we may. I believe we could grow tea in this country, and perhaps we will sometime, in South Carolina, especially. Prof. Shepard has been very active in growing tea near Charleston. The question again is what can be done from a scientific point of view, towards stopping the adulteration of foods? I am not a prohibitionist, but believe in the fullest possible personal liberty compatible with the welfare of society, but I do not want to be dictated to as to what I shall eat or drink. When I do drink, however, if I ever do, I want the government to protect me so that I can drink good whiskey. I do not want to drink poor whiskey. The same is true of eating mixed goods. If I want to eat them, that's my business, but I don't want them forced on me. Delegate: Do you consider glucose harmful? Dr. Wiley: I do not think it is, and I do not think oleomargarine harmful. I have had a great many harsh things said against me because I have so often declared that oleomargarine is harmless, but nevertheless I believe it is; but when I go to my grocer, I do not want him to sell oleomargarine for butter. I believe in the use of eleomargarine in some cases in preference to butter. It retains its sweetness longer, and the intrinsic value of oleomargarine is high, but, as I say, I do not want to be imposed upon, and have oleomargarine sold to me when I think I am buying butter. Delegate: I would like to ask you whether you would place before that great class of consuming public these goods in that form? Those who do not know and have no means of discovering adulterated goods from the genuine article, would you place these aduterated goods before them, so that they can be imposed upon by the dishonest dealer? Dr. Wiley: The point I make is this, from observation and a careful study of the whole matter, I believe prohibitory measures never prohibit. If we are going to prohibit things we are going to fail, that is the reason that I say that in the bill before Congress, the prohibition elements ought to be entirely eliminated. I would be opposed to any prohibitory measure against the manufacture of goods of any description. The law must protect the innocent consumer against imposition of any character. You could not enforce any kind of a law in a country where the people are opposed to it. The Pure Food Law must represent the public sentiment of this country, or else it will be a dead letter. One of the objects of this Congress is to consider legislation on a bill already before Congress,—a bill containing many crudities, perhaps, but the objects of that bill will meet the approval of every person here. There is not a farmer here, or one who represents a farming constituency who will not support it. What we want is that the farmer may get an honest market and the innocent consumer may get what he thinks he is buying. The idea of prohibition is to destroy trade. The object of this bill is to secure honesty, and I do not believe there is a person in the Congress who is not in favor of honesty. (Great applause.) Mr. F. N. Barrett, of New York, offered the following: Moved that the thanks of the Pure Food Congress are due and tendered to Prof. H. W. Wiley for his able, conservative, and judicious elucidation of the principles which lie at the foundation of the Pure Food Law. Report of the Committee on Credentials. Hon. Matthew Trimble, Chairman of the Cominittee on Credentials, submitted the following report: To the President and members of the Pure Food Congress: Your Committee on Credentials have examined the papers in the hands of the Secretary and find that appointments have been made by the Governors of twenty-four States, and the Department of Agriculture, the Internal Revenue Bureau, the Surgeon Generals of the Army, Navy and Warine Hospital Service, and the Fish Commission, and the following ational Organizations: NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS REPRESENTED. National Confectioners' Association, National Millers Association, Northwestern Millers' Association, American Chemical Society, United States Brewers' Association, Fishing Industry, United States Bee Keepers' Union, Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, Association of National Creamery & Butter Make rs, Vital Friends, Women's Christian Temperance Union, National Pure Food Association, Medical and Surgical Association, National Association of Dairy and Food Departments, United States Export Association, National Wholesale Grocers' Association, National Retail Grocers' Association, National Farmers' Congress, National Bee Keepers' Union, National Peace Congress. And by eighty-seven state and local commercial, scientific, agricultu ral, and manufacturing organizations. The names of the delegates are herewith submitted : DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. J. H. Brigham, Assistant Secretary, D. E. Salmon, Chief of Bureau of Animal Industry, H. W. Wiley, Chief of Division of Chemistry, Henry E. Alvord, Chief of Dairy Division, W. M. King, Statistical Division, (Special Cereal Inquiry), Frederick V. Coville, Chief of Division of Botany, A. D. Melvin, Chief of Inspection Division, B. A. I., INTERNAL REVENUE DEPARTMENT. Geo. W. Wilson, Internal Revenue Bureau, Washington, C. A. Crampton, M. D., Internal Revenue Bureau, Washington. SURGEON GENERAL OF THE NAVY Chas. H. White, U. S. N., Medical Director in charge of the U. S. N. Museum of Hygiene. James M. Flint, U. S. N., Medical Director, Smithsonian Institute, the "Portland." SURGEON GENERAL OF THE ARMY. Chas. H. Alden, (Col.) Asst. Surgeon Gen. U. S. A. Surgeon General's Office, Washington, Wm. H. Forwood, (Col.) Asst. Surgeon Gen. U. S. A., Attending Surgeon Soldiers' Home, Washington, Chas. Smart, (Lieut. Col.) Deputy Surgeon General U. S. A., Surgeon General's Office, Washington, Jas. C. Merrill, (Major) Chemist, Surgeon General's Office, Washington W. M. Mew, M. D., Chemist, Surgeon General's Office, Washington. MARINE HOSPITAL SERVICE. J. J. Kinyoun. P. Asst. Surgeon, M. H. S., Washington, D. C. Chas. E. Banks. Surgeon, M. H. S. Washington. |