vinced Professor Mallet that the aluminum compounds had an inhibitory effect on gastric digestion, and in some cases, particularly with the larger doses, interference with digestion was very noticeable. The effect of the hydroxide was greater than that of the phosphate for equal weights. There was no gastric pain or other symptom, or intestinal irritation, but simply the oppressive sensations of indigestion, properly so called. The symptoms generally lasted 2 or 3 hours after taking the food. Professor Mallet believes that a considerably less quantity of the compounds than would be necessary to produce decided discomfort when once administered might prove objectionable and injurious when habitually taken as a part of the bread of each daily meal. (562, 563.)

Professor Mallet sums up his conclusions from his experiments upon alum baking powders and their residua in the following terms:

(a) The greater part of the alum baking powders in the American market are made with alum, the acid phosphate of calcium, bicarbonate of sodium, and starch. "(b) These powders, as found in retail trade, give off very different proportions of carbonic-acid gas, and therefore require to be used in different proportion with the same quantity of flour, some of the inferior powders in largely increased amount to produce the requisite porosity in bread.

(c) In these powders there is generally present an excess of the alkaline ingredient, but this excess varies in amount, and there is sometimes found, on the contrary, an excess of acid material.

(d) On moistening with water these powders, even when containing an excess of alkaline material, yield small quantities of aluminum and calcium in a soluble condition.

"(e) As a consequence of the common employment of calcium acid phosphate along with alum in the manufacture of baking powders, these, after use in bread making, leave at any rate most of their aluminum in the form of phosphate. When alum alone is used the phosphate is replaced by hydroxide.

"(f) The temperature to which the interior of bread is exposed in baking does not exceed 212° F.

"(g) At the temperature of 212° F. neither the water of combination' of aluminum hydroxide nor the whole of the associated water of either this or the phosphate is removed in baking bread containing these substances as residues from baking powder.

"(h) In doses not very greatly exceeding such quantities as may be derived from bread as commonly used, aluminum hydroxide and phosphate produce, or produced in experiments upon myself, an inhibitory effect upon gastric digestion. "(i) This effect is probably a consequence of the fact that a part of the aluminum unites with the acid of the gastric juice and is taken up into solution, while at the same time the remainder of the aluminum hydroxide or phosphate throws down in insoluble form the organic substance constituting the peptic ferment. “(k) Partial precipitation in insoluble form of some of the organic matter of food may probably also be brought about by the presence of the aluminum compounds in question.

"(1) From the general nature of the results obtained, the conclusion may fairly be deduced that not only alum itself, but the residues which its use in baking powder leaves in bread, can not be viewed as harmless, but must be ranked as objectionable, and should be avoided when the object aimed at is the production of wholesome bread." (565, 566.)

Regarding Professor Mallet's conclusions, Dr. CRAMPTON, chief of the division of chemistry in the office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, says: “I may say that most of those based upon purely chemical work I can indorse, having confirmed many in my own work; but I think the evidence furnished by his physiological work is hardly sufficient to justify his conclusions as to the harmfulness of such powders." (624.)

Surgeon-General VAN REYPEN, of the United States Navy, says that the alums in baking powder are unquestionably injurious to the digestive system and produce chronic dyspepsia. (615.)

Supervising Surgeon-General WYMAN, of the Marine-Hospital Service, bases the opinion that alum should not be used in food products, such as baking powder, upon the fact that alum applied locally to a mucous membrane is astringent and irritant. He says that alum baking powder is not issued by the Marine-Hospital Service. (616.)

Professor APPLETON, of Brown University, believes that the use of alum baking powder results in painful and serious disturbances of digestion. (619.)

Professor TUCKER, of the Albany Medical College, is of opinion that alum in bread making or in baking powder is injurious, hardening the gluten of the flour and retarding digestion. In those whose digestion is already enfeebled alum preparations may cause grave disorders. (618.)

Medical Inspector PRICE, of the United States Navy, thinks that the daily use of alum, even in small quantities, would have an injurious astringent effect, and that cream of tartar is comparatively harmless. (619.)

Surgeon-General STERNBERG and Deputy Surgeon-General SMART, of the United States Army, say that while the injurious effect of the residua of alum baking powder is a matter of dispute, and while it is difficult to connect dyspepsia in the human subject with the use of alum baking powder, many laboratory experiments support the view that digestion is impaired by the presence in the stomach of the substances formed during the decomposition of alum. They consider that the public welfare would be improved by the exclusion of alum from all bread-making materials. No alum baking powder is furnished to the Army. (607.)

Dr. CUTHBERT has given no particular attention to the subject, but from the consensus of opinion of medical men his judgment is that the continued administration of alum is harmful, (609,610.)

Mr. THURBER states that the firm with which he was formerly connected was a considerable manufacturer of baking powders, and was under great temptation to make an alum powder on account of the cheapness of the material. It investigated the subject as carefully as it could with this in view. It came to the conclusion that while the use of a single loaf of bread made with alum powder might not produce noticeably bad effects, "the cumulative effects of mineral substances like alumina would in time be very deleterious." (581.)

Dr. KERR, formerly health officer of Chicago, is satisfied, from analyses presented for his inspection and from the results upon the human system which have been brought to his attention, that alum in food stuffs, paticularly in baking powders, is deleterious to health. It impairs digestion, produces many digestive disorders, causes constipation, and impairs the action of the kidneys and bladder. He regards it as an insidious cumulative poision, and believes that continued use will eventually become a menace to life itself. (605.)

Dr. FLEMING, a physician, regards the use of alum in baking powder or otherwise in baked foods as injurious in several ways. It hardens the gluten of flour, impairs digestion, and induces constipation. Excessive use of it produces visceral inflammation and enteritis. It also produces functional derangement of the kidneys and bladder. (604.)

Professor CORNWALL, of Princeton University, regards alum in baking powder as objectionable on the ground that under certain conditions it may exert an injurious effect on the digestion. The effects may not be very marked in the case of any individual consumer, but that they can be induced to a greater or less extent seems to be well established." (618.)

Dr. MCMURTRIE says that the healthfulness of alum in food has been carefully considered by various governmental and State authorities, boards of health, and food commissioners, and that such authorities have never indorsed the use of it. Dr. McMurtrie says that the various organs of the body perform their functions largely by diffusion, and when the aluminum compounds are subjected to diffusion it is found in many cases that the acid constituent passes through the dialyzing membrane and the aluminum is left behind. Because of the difficult diffusibility of the compounds they will not pass through the organs as rapidly as other substances, and the repeated periodical injection of them would produce an accumulation which would interfere seriously with the functions of the organs. Dr. McMurtrie says that it is stated by Professor Kobert, of Dorpat, Germany, that alumina compounds in the blood, practically irrespective of the combination in which they are found there, produce distinctly poisonous effects; that these alumina compounds when taken into the system may be found in the principal organs, as the liver, the spleen, the kidneys, and even the brain. Dr. Kobert is further said to have shown that the poisonous action of the alumina compounds is very slow, and that intense nervous disturbance may ultimately occur, though no symptoms are observed for several days after the compounds are introduced into the blood. (597, 598, 601.)

Dr. JOSEPH TABER JOHNSON, a physician, speaking of alum itself, says that if it were introduced into the system in bread or baking powder it would interfere with digestion. Even a small dose used continuously would be dangerous. (615.) J. Other uses of alum (see also Pickles, p. 66).-1. To whiten bread.-Dr. WILEY says alum is sometimes used in bread making, where yeast is used, to whiten bread. (46.)

Dr. STRINGFIELD says alum is commonly used to improve the appearance of bread; principally by bakers. (549.)

Dr. CRAMPTON, in discussing the use of alum by bakers to improve the appearance of bread, quotes one authority who says: "The influence of alum on health, in the small quantities in which it is usually added to bread, is very problematical, and rests upon theory more than observation." Another authority says: "Whether

there be sufficient foundation for the statements made respecting the injurious effects of alumed bread on the system is still an open question." Another, however, says that when it is used "a large portion of the gluten and other valuable constituents of the flour are never properly dissolved, but pass through the alimentary canal without affording any nourishment whatever." (622, 623.)

Mr. PETRAENS says that bakers have often used a very inferior flour and added alum to improve the appearance of the bread. The quantity of alum is too small to do any harm. The real harm consists in using wormy and poor flour and passing it upon the public as a good article. (292.)

2. In the filtration of water.-Professor AUSTEN says that alum is used on a large scale in the filtration of water. It combines with the dissolved bicarbonate of lime, producing carbonic acid gas and gelatinous hydrate of alumina. The latter substance is precipitated and gathers the fine suspended matter, forming with it masses large enough to be removed by a sand filter bed. This process is used in Atlanta, in Kansas City, and many other places throughout the country. It would be unlawful under the terms of a law which should forbid the use of alum in the preparation of food. (533, 534.)

Professor MALLET regards the use of alum in purifying water as of doubtful wisdom. He would hesitate to use water treated with alum in the proportion in which it is generally used. He was about to recommend to the city of Richmond, Va., to substitute salts of iron for salts of aluminum for this purpose. Yet the quantity of alum so used is very minute-not more than one or two grains and often only a fraction of a grain to a gallon of water, and this is intended to be precipitated. Even if the whole amount remained in the water, it would be less than is used in alum baking powders. (555.)

K. Use of alum prohibited in European countries.-Dr. MCMURTRIE, consulting chemist of the Royal Baking Powder Company, says that the use of alum in food, in any form and in any quantity, is absolutely prohibited in England, France, and Germany. (600.)

Dr. CRAMPTON, chief of the division of chemistry in the Treasury Department, says: "For a proper understanding of the alum question it is necessary to explain that the use of alum in bread making is prohibited in countries having foodadulteration laws, such as England and France. This is partly on account of its injurious effect upon the system, but principally because of its peculiar action, not yet well understood, in improving the color and appearance of the bread to which it has been added, so that a flour of inferior grade, or even partially spoiled, may be used to make bread which will look as well, to all appearances, as bread made from much better grades." (622.) (See also State laws, p. 110.)

L. Proposed legislation.-1. Labeling.-Dr. WILEY says all baking powders should be marked to show their constitution, whether cream of tartar, acid phosphate, or alum baking powder. He would not say that alum powder should be absolutely prohibited. (47.)

Professor MITCHELL, chemist to the dairy and food commission and the State board of health of Wisconsin, thinks that at least the public should be plainly informed when baking powder contains alum. If one has a prejudice against using these astringents he should have the right to be protected. Aside from the question of wholesomeness, he considers the desirability of labeling alum baking powders "alum" undoubted, because a fraud is committed in selling the cheaper substances for the more expensive ones. (107-109.)

Professor PRESCOTT is inclined to think that any baking powder other than that made by mixing cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda and a due quantity of filling should have its composition announced on the package; at any rate, he is very sure that any baking powder containing alum, if allowed to be sold, should have the presence of the alum clearly stated. (196, 197.)

Mr. REW, vice-president of the Calumet Baking Powder Company, considers it just that all products should be labeled to show what they contain, and the public informed of the chemical action which takes place. In labeling baking powder the most just way would be to require the manufacturer to print upon his label the names and amounts of substances left in the food, so that the consumer might know that when he takes foods prepared with cream of tartar baking powder he is taking seidlitz powder, and that when he takes foods prepared with alum baking powder, he does not get any alum, but gets Glauber's salts (sulphate of soda). (88.)

Mr. MARC DELAFONTAINE, a chemist, says requiring the formula to be printed on the label would be all right if people were well educated and understood the chemical changes, but so long as they are not, they are frightened by the word alum. The label might give the formula or the contents in a general way, and then the maker might state that there is nothing injurious in the use of the substance. (230, 231.)

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Professor EATON, formerly chemist to the Minnesota dairy food commission, advises that all baking powders be labeled with the minimum percentage of gas they are calculated to evolve, after the manner of laws on this subject in the East. He would not put the formula on the label, because he believes the. formula to be the property of the inventor; but he would label the various classes of baking powder with the class to which they belong, whether alum, alum phosphate, cream of tartar, or pure phosphate, all of which differ in the residuum which they leave in the bread. He hardly thinks it fair to require a label, "This powder contains alum," as is done by Minnesota, Wisconsin, and several other States, at least until the fact that alum is positively injurious is established, because it conveys to the purchaser the impression that it is harmful and inferior. 11 it is injurious, it should be prohibited, and if not, it should be given the same right as any other class of powder. (236.)

2. Prohibition of alum powder.-Dr. PRESCOTT, in a statement submitted in January, 1900, refers to his earlier testimony, in which he expressed the opinion that if alum baking powder were allowed to be sold, the presence of alum should be clearly stated on the package, and said that in his present judgment the sale of baking powders or other articles of food containing alum should be prohibited. (625.)

Assistant Surgeon FREEMAN, U. S. N., believes that the use of alum baking powder and the use of alum by bakers should be prohibited by law. (620.)

Dr. JOHNSTON unqualifiedly unites with those who ask for the prohibition of the use of alum baking powder. (626.)

Dr. WISE desires the prohibition of the use of alum in any article of food. (627.) Professor FAIRHURST thinks the use of alum in baking powder should be prohibited by law. (620.)

Dr. KERR would favor making the use of alum in baking powder a felony, punishable by fine and imprisonment. (605.)

Dr. APPLETON believes that the manufacture and sale of alum baking powders should be prohibited. (619.)

M. Bread without baking powder.-1. Fermentation.-Professor MUNROE, of the Columbian University, is of opinion that the most wholesome method of converting flour into bread is by the process of fermentation. (608.)

2. Saleratus.-Mr. REW says that in the preparation of soda biscuits the cook uses a uniform quantity of saleratus baking soda and an indefinite quantity of sour milk, which may be at one time very acid and at another time weakly acid. If she uses more soda than her sour milk will take care of, the biscuits are yellow. If she uses too little soda or too much milk, the biscuits are white and bleached. In using baking powder prepared on chemical lines the residue is the same, whether 2 teaspoonfuls or 1 be used to a quart of flour. (105.)

IV. BUTTER, OLEOMARGARINE, AND OTHER ANIMAL PRODUCTS. A. Renovated or process butter.-Mr. NORTH says that the making of process butter consists in the "rendering" of dairy butter at a temperature of from 110° to 130°, washing it with water, and so obtaining a neutral oil, and churning the resulting fat with milk or cream to give a flavor. This flavor is "not a component part of the mass, and in consequence it goes away in the air. You buy butter to-day and it has this flavor; to-morrow it is gone. Some makers make it so that it lasts a week, others so that it will last only until to-morrow. Mr. CRACKÉ, deputy commissioner of agriculture of the State of New York, says that the law of that State requires such butter to be labeled in large letters, Renovated butter." (479, 480.)

66

Mr. DUFF, chemist of the New York Produce Exchange, says that all classes of butter, irrespective of condition, are collected and remelted at as low a temperature as possible and then rechurned with milk. The butter is washed, the rancid acid is largely eliminated, and the rechurning brings back the natural texture and appearance as far as possible. The product is called renovated butter. It is not detrimental to health, but it is a fraud. (498.)

Mr. C. Y. KNIGHT says new process butter is made from farmers' butter by taking out the brine, the casein, and other matter which may have become tainted or stale, and replacing it. The butter is taken to factories, melted down, salted, the water precipitated, and rechurned in an emulsion of skimmed milk, as oleomargarine is churned to give it the butter flavor, the flavor of butter being in the casein. The different makers of process butter have different systems. No chemicals are used. Mr. Knight has had a number of samples of this process butter analyzed, and, so far as the component parts are concerned, it has been called pure butter; but it can be detected under the microscope from the fact that the fats are emulsified. (170.)

Mr. STERNE says butter which is green and moldy, blue and white, and all sorts of colors, is picked up on the street at the lowest price, melted down and settled in a kettle, put through a soda process, rewashed, handed out onto a table through ice water, put through a worker, recolored, resalted, and sold. He has examined it on Water street, where it is known as imitation creamery. It contains alkali from the use of soda, and is absolutely unfit for anything except to settle salt. Mr. Sterne says he knows of a number of firms supposed to be in the business of washing gangrened butter. (221, 226.)

Mr. Sterne says grease butter has rarely been below 9 cents a pound, because washers take it and work it over and put it on the street as butter for food to the extent of thousands of tons a year. Mr. Sterne states, as the result of observation, that sal soda and salicylic acid are used in its preparation. (227.)

B. Oleomargarine.-1. Ingredients and process of manufacture.-Dr. WILEY has found that other fats, both animal and vegetable, including mixtures of cotton-seed oil and beef fat, and sometimes a high grade of pork fat, have been substituted for butter fat, and that these compounds were often sold as pure better before the passage of the oleomargarine act, which compelled the stamping and branding of such packages. He thinks that where the act has been enforced it has protected the public and the farmers against fraudulent adulterations. (13.)

Professor MITCHELL says oleo oil is extracted from beef stearin and mixed with neutral lard to make butter imitations. Some years ago there was butterine with considerable actual butter in it, but now there are very small percentages of butter. Butterine with butter in it would cost considerably more than that made of cheap oils. (126.)

Mr. STERNE, a commission merchant of Chicago, formerly in the oleomargarine business, says the manufacture of oleomargarine was begun in this country in 1879, and it is made to-day almost exactly as it was at that time, out of the purest fats; it has no adulteration in it whatever. Ever since the beginning of its manufacture it has been known as a compound of beef fat and lard, sometimes with cotton-seed oil. The hog product gives the grain. It was formerly adulterated with butter, but so little pure butter could be bought that the manufacturers had to go back to cream, and no oleomargarine maker now uses any butter. The fats from the bullock are cooked, and the tallow element withdrawn by a mechanical process, leaving butter fat, absolutely the same as that produced from the milk, as far as chemistry has been able to determine, and far superior for the reason that there is no deterioration, while butter begins to deteriorate at once. Every butter man who takes an exhibit to a fair insists upon judgment within twentyfour hours. Oleomargarine makers churn cream with the butter fat to give it the aroma caused by the action of the bacteria in milk. Rich cream is used; it is guaranteed in the contracts to produce 20 pounds of butter to the hundred pounds of cream. Mr. Sterne quotes the official chemists of the Austrian Government as saying that the only germs ever present in oleomargarine are those common to air and water, and that the product is especially liable to contamination because the best process of manufacture fails to eliminate all the lactic-acid ferment.

Mr. Sterne believes that oleomargarine has never had an adulterant. It has never had a chance to be fairly known, because of the objectionable articles in the press and in the dairy papers. He says the difference in the grades of oleomargarine is due to the quantity of milk and cream churned with it, the proportions of fats being nearly always the same. (221-228.)

Mr. Sterne buys materials for oleomargarine makers, and he wishes" to emphasize the strict examination and purity that is required, not only by the manufacturer of the raw material, but by the manufacturer of the finished product, in all materials which go into butterine." The witness believes that England has as good food laws as any country, and the larger part of the oleomargarine fat and neutral manufactured here is sent to the other side. (341.)

Mr. MILLER, manager of the butterine department of the Armour Packing Company, Kansas City, says that butterine is composed of oleo oil, neutral, butter, cream, milk, and salt. Highly refined cotton-seed oil is sometimes used in limited quantities in the cheapest grades. In the better grades butter is always used. Oleo oil is made from the caul fat, the richest and choicest fat of the beef. This fat amounts to about 40 pounds to the animal. It is taken out before the animal is skinned, thoroughly washed, and thrown into a vat of ice water, to stand until the following day. Then it is cut up fine and cooked. The fat is cooled and placed in linen cloths, and the oil is extracted in a hydraulic press. The residue in the cloths after pressing is commercially known as stearin. Neutral is the leaf lard of the pig. The leaf, amounting to about 5 or 6 pounds to the pig, is taken out as soon as the animal is killed, thoroughly washed, and put into a freezer for 24 hours. It is then cut into shreds and cooked. Neutral is snowy white, without