"It appears from the above that formaldehyde is a valuable preservative, being at once powerful, innocuous, and convenient." (186.)

2. Its use condemned.-Dr. EDWARDS feels that we have yet only a small knowledge of the action of formaldehyde, but it has marked local effects; for instance, upon the upper air passages when inhaled; and it thickens and hardens the skin of the fingers. Its known effects would lead him to shun it as a preservative. (286.) Dr. PIFFARD says formic aldehyde, which has been offered under various trade names as a preservative, is an active irritant poison. If given in homeopathic doses diluted up to the millionth or ten millionth part he does not know that it would have any effect. (191.)

Professor PRESCOTT says that formaldehyde, which is coming into quite general use as an antiseptic, is made by limited oxidation of wood alcohol. Wood alcohol is poisonous if not absolutely pure, and quite poisonous substances are included in ordinary crude wood alcohol. He counts formaldehyde as injurious and unwholesome. He does not doubt that it causes injury to some extent by its direct effects, and is sure that it causes injury by interfering with the digestive processes. (196.)

Dr. BILLINGS says formaldehyde is a product of wood alcohol, and is a bad thing to use in foods. (248.)

Dr. ALLPORT states that he has injected a one-fourth solution of formalin in water into a dead body, and within 24 hours the body was absolutely rigid; on being struck it gave a note such as one gets from a hard substance. The vapor of formalin is very irritating. It causes sneezing when it gets into the nose and throat, and it inflames the lining of the eyelids. It is exceedingly penetrating. Dr. Allport has used it for disinfecting clothing which had been exposed to yellow fever. The vapor of it was found to penetrate a pile of clothing to a depth of 4 or 5 inches. It would penetrate food products in the same way. It would render them distasteful, and, he thinks, would make them hard to digest. He does not think that any preparation of formalin could be made so mild as to be harmless in the preparation of food. (259, 260.)

3. Its use in milk defended.-Professor MITCHELL says formic aldehyde is absolutely deleterious when used in strong solutions, but not in the very weak strength in which it would be held in milk. "It is used in strong solutions to harden tissue for microscopic work, as it will kill and harden microscopic animalculæ very readily. If a drop of it is put into water, or any material containing those small, living organisms, they immediately give a few convulsive kicks and die. And the attempt was made by physicians, as it is such a strong preservative, to put it in morphine solutions-morphine quickly deteriorates after it is dissolvedto preserve those solutions and use them, for example, for eardrops, dropping in the ear in case of earache, and so on. But it was found that it killed the skin and the skin dried up and peeled off, and it could not be used, even in dilute solutions, in the ear, as a preservative, and the physicians who had lauded it immediately retracted their laudations." (112.)

Mr. ALBERT HELLER, of Heller & Co., says he manufactures freezine, freezem, and Konservirungs-salze. Freezine, advertised for preserving milk, cream, buttermilk, cream puffs, ice cream, etc., is also used for sterilizing and cleaning utensils in which milk is put. It is a 6 per cent solution of formaldehyde (CHOH), which is made from burning alcohol. Mr. Heller claims that it is not only perfectly harmless, but is positively healthful, especially for infants who are troubled with fermentation of the stomach. The object of the freezine is to control and retard the increase of bacteria in milk, making it more healthful. It is not used in sufficient quantity to kill the bacteria. Witness claims that by the use of freezine the percentage of loss in cholera infantum can be greatly reduced, Even in stronger solutions it would not be harmful. Mr. Heller mentions a case in which a woman took 2 teaspoonfuls of a 40 per cent solution of formaldehyde which a physician had given her for another purpose. It burned her as mustard would, and she immediately took an emetic. By the time the doctor came the burning sensation had disappeared and there were no ill effects whatever. The formaldehyde used in freezine is imported. Half a teaspoonful of the 6 per cent solution is used in 10 gallons of milk. The claim that freezine evades detection goes to show that the quantity used is so small that it is hardly a trace. Mr. Heller says if mothers would all use freezine in the milk they feed their babies the babies would not have sour stomachs, and there would be very little cholera infantum. He says there is not much freezine used. It has been shipped mostly to the East; some has been exported. Mr. Heller submits a letter from a dealer to the effect that the State of Ohio allows the use of formaldehyde in milk, but that the use of salicylic acid is a violation of the Ohio food laws. (171-176, 184, 185.)

Mr. Heller submits an extract from the Bulletin of Pharmacy, Vol. XI, p. 439, in which Prof. J. N. Hurty is quoted as follows:

"For a child affected with marked indigestion, obviously due to fermentation, I recently recommended that cow's milk be treated immediately after being taken from the animal with 5 drops of 40 per cent solution of formaldehyde to each quart, and that the child be fed with the milk thus treated. Two weeks' trial of pasteurized milk had not brought relief. Within 10 days after commencing the use of the formol-milk a decided improvement was apparent. Its continuation resulted in complete cessation of the symptoms. Now, after a 10 weeks' trial, with two intermissions, which admonished a return to formol-milk, the child is in excellent condition."

Professor Hurty goes on to say that he has himself used formaldehyde to prevent the fermentation which causes acid indigestion, with most excellent results. For 1 week, as an experiment, he took three times a day, after meals, 4 ounces of milk containing 5 drops of 40 per cent formaldehyde solution without the least untoward result. (185, 186.)

F. Boracic acid and borax.-1. Nature and uses.-Dr. ALLPORT says borax is made by combining about 100 parts of boracic acid with about 120 or 130 parts of carbonate of soda.

Dr. FRANK BILLINGS, professor of the practice of medicine in Rush Medical College, testifies that borax is a salt coming from the element boron, its chemical name being biborate of soda. It occurs in nature as borax and is often mined in its natural condition. It is used very commonly in medicine, and is even used in cooking very much as bicarbonate of soda is used. In recent years it has come into more common use, supplanting bicarbonate of soda both in domestic and medicinal use, because it is slightly antiseptic, stopping fermentation and decomposition better than soda, and is as good a neutralizer of acids. It is used very much in medicine for neutralizing acids and cleansing surfaces. Dr. Billings uses it every day in stomach disturbances for washing out stomachs, putting from 1 to 5 per cent in water to render it slightly alkaline to remove mucus from the surface of the stomach and to neutralize any abnormal acid which may be there. In surgery it is used as an antiseptic, both in washing and in packing wounds. It is dusted on the surface of wounds to keep them clean and to prevent the growth of pathogenic germs. (244.)

Dr. WILEY testifies that borax is used in butter, milk, and cream. (45.)

2. In milk and cream.-Mr. H. C. ADAMS says boracic acid or boric acid is very much advertised in Wisconsin, and when used it is used as a rule to cover up shiftlessness and carelessness in handling milk, for which there is no excuse. The tendency is unquestionably injurious to the public health. Wisconsin prohibits its use in milk. (209.)

Professor JENKINS says borax is often found in cream.

(450.)

Professor MITCHELL produced a sample of "cream albuminoid" sold by the Creamery Package Company, of Chicago, consisting of boracic acid or borax mixed with gelatin powder in order to give a thick creamy consistency to milk or to thin cream. He considers it objectionable, both as an antiseptic and as a fraud, but there is a demand for such goods. (114.)

Dr. ALLPORT, a physician, states that the use of borax to preserve milk is allowed by the governments of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. (256.)

3. In butter.-Mr. KNIGHT says the only antiseptic he knows of that is used in butter is boracic acid, powdered and refined to borax. So far as he knows, this is only used for the export trade; he has never heard of any being used for local consumption. The buyer can not detect it, but a chemist can detect it very readily. It is used universally in the butter that is shipped to England from Australia, in all the butter that goes from France to England, and in practically all that goes from Ireland to England. Its use in this country has been on the order of importers to England; an Englishman would order whatever number of boxes he desired and order it put up in that way. In America there is a prejudice against it and it will not be used except where it is ordered. There are laws against the use of borax in butter in Michigan, New York, and Minnesota. The butter-consuming States report no trouble about the keeping qualities of butter. The English public does not object to the use of borax, except where there is agitation. The Danish exporters of butter find it very easy to put butter into England without an antiseptic. The French butter known as Brettel-Frare butter, which is without salt, commands the highest price in England, but the most popular butter there is the Danish butter, which reaches the higher middle class. The Secretary of Agriculture used no preservative in his experiments in shipping butter to England. Americans have never made a success of shipping fine butter to England, not because of any lack of keeping qualities so much as because they

could not give a steady supply on account of the fluctuations of the home demand. (168-170.)

Mr. Knight has made a careful investigation in Liverpool, Manchester, London, and Bristol as to why American butter could not be placed on the English market in the same condition as butter going greater distances from Australia or Argentina. It was the universal verdict of butter men that American butter had not the keeping qualities of Australian, Argentinian, and French butters. One great difficulty is in the English method of taking care of butter without ice boxes. The largest importing firms told him that they would not think of importing butter from Australia or Argentina, or of putting the French butters on the market, without preservatives. They said the preservative used was practically all borax, differing from the borax that comes out of the ground in having been purified. It is mixed with the salt or sprinkled on the butter before working and worked in. Mr. Knight has been told by a representative of an Australian firm, which has charge of the exportation of 75 per cent of the Australian butter that goes to England, that they had practically come to the conclusion that the export butter trade from Australia would be a total failure without that preservative. (243, 244.)

Mr. Knight is informed that in butter exported from Australasia the rule is to use 1 per cent of borax. The working of the butter works out 20 or 30 per cent of water and about half the borax, leaving about one-half or three-fourths of 1 per cent. One-half of 1 per cent is the average advised by English importers. A certain English order for 4,000 boxes from Kansas stipulated that there should be 1 per cent of borax used, but as a rule it is taken for granted that the exporter knows how to put up butter, and they simply specify a boron preservative. America does not get very much of the English business because of the sentiment that has grown up here against the use of preservatives. The United States Department of Agriculture has for a number of years imported butters to show our butter makers what the English markets want, and then has advised them not to make butter like it. At the convention held at Sioux Falls, S. Dak., there were large exhibits, one of which was analyzed and shown to be preserved with boracic acid; but there was a strong sentiment against making butter in that way. Physicians who have made practical experiments extending over a period of years universally testify that they have had no deleterious effects from borax; while others testify that any kind of preservative is harmful on the ground that anything that will stop any kind of fermentation will also stop digestion. At one time a reward was offered for any case where it could be proved that there had been any injurious effects from the use of a boron preservative, but the case was not produced. (250–252.)

Mr. HENSHAW, an exporter of butter, says that the English trade are accustomed to preservatives in butter, and that his customers in England demand the use of borax. He has only been able to get one or two American makers to put up butter in this manner. Our people are very loth to take up new ideas in butter. (266.)

Mr. NORTH, an exporter of butter, states that in many countries on the continent of Europe and in many South American States butter which contains boracic acid is confiscated. Every European State has a law against it except Great Britain and France. In Germany the board of health forbids its introduction. In other European countries the administration of the law is under either the agricultural department or the customs department. The Danish anti-boracic-acid law went into effect on April 1, and the Brazil law about 30 or 60 days afterwards. In England the question is not settled; arrests are made in some counties for the use of boracic acid, and not in others.

Mr. CRACKÉ confirms the statement that the question is differently treated in different English counties, but thinks that this may be a matter of administration rather than a matter of law. (476-478.)

Mr. NORTH believes that boracic acid is as harmless as salt; but it ought not to be used in butter, simply because the use of it destroys the sale of American butter in so many foreign countries. It is not necessary. Out of 9,000,000 packages of butter that went into Great Britain last year only 19 per cent contained boracic acid. Denmark shipped 2,800,000 packages to Great Britain, or nearly one-third of the total, without a particle of boracic acid. Denmark rules the butter market of Great Britain, and is gaining in South America from year to year; more butter goes to southern climates in tins from Denmark than from any other country; and it is all free from boracic acid. If American butter were sent to England absolutely pure it could be distributed from there to the continental markets. This would open great new markets to our butter. Mr. North says that boracic acid retards the fermentation of butyric acid, but accelerates the formation of butyric ether and stearic acid; and these are much worse than the

acidity which would otherwise exist. Boracic acid can not, therefore, properly be said to preserve butter. (476–478.)

Mr. DELAFONTAINE has never found antiseptic preservatives in either butter or oleomargarine, but has never looked especially for them. He says the nature of the fat does not invite the use of an antiseptic. He does not know of any antiseptic which would prevent the fat from turning rancid. (231.)

4. In meat.-Dr. EDWARDS remarks that boracic acid, like carbonic acid, is not an acid in the ordinary sense. That is, it is not corrosive. It does not change the tissues it comes in contact with. It does not harden meat, as a brine solution does. He understands that meats preserved with borax are simply rolled in it, and that it is rather in the nature of a coating to prevent the germs of the air from reaching the substance of the meat. On this account much less of borax than of common salt is intimately mixed with the meat preserved with it. (288, 299.) Professor JENKINS, of the Connecticut agricultural experiment station, states that borax has been found in 1 or 2 chickens brought from the West, and has been found in considerable quantity in sausages. From 8 grains to over 50, making seven-tenths of 1 per cent, have been found in a pound of sausage. Out of 75 samples of fresh oysters, 13 were found to have been treated with borax in quantities varying from 54 grains to more than 38 per pint. (450.)

Mr. ROBERT T. LUNHAM, of Boyd, Lunham & Co., pork packers, of Chicago, testifies that his firm uses borax only in its export meats. He would hardly call it a preservative, as it is used more to protect the meat than to preserve it. The meat is preserved before the borax is applied. The English people formerly found fault with the meat because it was too salty, and it was necessary to find something to obviate that. After a good deal of experimenting and investigating, it was found that borax was just the article required. It has served to solve the whole problem. They said, "That is what we want. Why didn't you give it to us before?" Boyd, Lunham & Co. began to use it in 1875, and their trade has been increasing ever since. The city of Liverpool alone will take from 18,000 to 20,000 boxes of bacon weekly. Twenty-five years ago they would not take that amount in a year. Ninety-five per cent of the meat for the fancy English trade is packed in borax, as directed by the orders. At the head of every page in the code books used are the words "To be packed in borax." If enough salt were put on to keep the meat in condition, it would be too salty. The meat is kept in salt or saltpeter until it is safe, and then packed with the borax sprinkled over it; but it does not cure any more. The borax has no effect on the strength of the ham. Mr. Lunham has always been under the impression that the meat did not absorb any of the borax whatever. A certain amount must remain on the surface, but the percentage must be very small. As little borax as possible is applied, because it is expensive. It simply keeps the meat from getting slimy when exposed to heat in transit. When it gets to England, the borax is all washed off. Members of the firm who have gone over and seen it unpacked have stated that there is about as much borax washed off as there was put on. From 1 to 14 per

cent is used on the surface of the meat; as high as 7 pounds to the box of 500 to 600 pounds. If the meat is dry, less is used, because less adheres to it. It is brushed off as much as possible to economize the borax. If borax could not be used, something would have to be found to take its place. The Germans want their meat the same way as the English. Some classes of meat if shipped in salt would arrive in such shape that they could not be used, especially pickled cured meats, shoulders, etc. Mr. Lunham thinks that for the first year or so Boyd, Lunham & Co. were about the only users of borax. By degrees the other packers found themselves compelled to use it, and it has now been in general use for fully 20 years. Mr. Lunham has seen customers of the firm who eat the boraxed meat regularly. They look very healthy, and laugh when asked if it disagrees with them. He has never heard of persons being made sick through the use of borax. When he takes meat home, he always has it rubbed in borax. It keeps the flies off in summer. (239-242.)

Mr. HENRY ELLSWORTH, a commission merchant of Chicago, says that shippers do not think they can ship meats except in borax, and his experience has always been satisfactory when meats were so packed. He shipped by mistake a shipment of hams, half of which were packed in salt instead of borax, and the hams that were in salt got out of condition and were refused. He never had any trouble with meat shipped in borax, and never had any complaint as to its healthfulness. The orders from abroad stipulate that the meats shall be packed in borax. The meat is nearly always shipped before it is entirely cured. It is put into a box and rolled around in the borax. He does not believe that the borax goes into the meat, but thinks it keeps the pickle which cures the meat from running out. All packers use the same method. (253-255.)

5. Injurious effects.-Dr. DUNCAN submits a clipping from the London Lancet, a medical authority, to the following effect:

R. B. Wild distinguishes two forms of intoxication from boric acid-one in which a large quantity of the drug is rapidly absorbed, producing vomiting and diarrhea, general depression, and partial paralysis of the nervous and muscular systems, and perhaps death, a rash also being noted in many cases, especially some days after the absorption of the drug; the other class of cases results from the use of comparatively small doses of the drug for long periods. In some of these it is mentioned that the kidneys are diseased, and the author gives as a possible reason for immunity to the injurious effects of the acid its very rapid elimination by healthy kidneys. It is possible that cases of intoxication occur more frequently than is recognized. Boric acid may be unwittingly taken in food and cause a toxic skin eruption, which may be mistaken for eczema, psoriasis, or exfoliative dermatitis. Á 1:500 solution corresponds to a 17:5 grams per pint of the acid, a very large dose for an infant on milk diet, and likely in some cases to produce disturbance of the alimentary canal. It should be ascertained that milk ordered in cases of kidney disease is free from excess of boric acid or borax. The use of boric acid or borax in surgery and their internal use should be carefully guarded in patients with diseased kidneys, and immediately discontinued on the appearance of dermatitis or other toxic symptoms. (47, 48.)

Dr. PIFFARD says there is no question in his mind as to the injuriousness of borax, and he expressed himself to that effect at the hearing given by the New York State senate committee in January, 1899. (191.)

Professor PRESCOTT says that his remarks as to the injurious effects of salicylic acid apply also to borax, the only difference being one of degree. (200.)

6. Their wholesomeness affirmed.-Mr. DELAFONTAINE says that boracic acid seems to be harmless, but is a comparatively poor antiseptic. (233.)

Dr. STRINGFIELD says that his experience has taught him that borax is absolutely harmless. (282.)

Mr. HELLER says that boracic acid is more healthful than saltpeter. (179.) Dr. HAINES says that boracic acid produces a much less deleterious effect upon meat than common salt or saltpeter; that the juice of meat treated with it is retained more nearly in its natural condition. While cases of bad effects from boracic acid have been reported, he has failed to find a single case in which the bad results could not be reasonably attributed either to excessive doses, or to the disease for which the acid was used, or to personal idiosyncrasies, or to impurities in the acid. All these modifying circumstances are as likely to occur in the use of common salt or saltpeter as in the use of boracic acid. Certain persons can not take much salt without injury; others can not take saltpeter without injury. Boracic acid has caused fewer deaths than they have. Dr. Haines has in a medical way administered 10 grains of boracic acid four times a day for weeks and months, and has never seen a single case in which there was the slightest unwholesome effect. On the contrary the very happiest results have often followed such administration. His investigations have led him to believe conclusively that boracic acid and borax are not more dangerous than common salt and saltpeter as food preservatives, and are for various reasons to be preferred to them. (284, 285.)

Professor CHITTENDEN says that his experiments indicate that small amounts of borax increase rather than decrease the rate of digestion. This is especially true of boracic acid, which, combined with sodium, produces borax. If the quantity is large enough, nausea and vomiting are produced. In the analyses that have been reported at the agricultural experiment station in New Haven the percentages found have always been too small to be dangerous to the public health. Professor Chittenden would not consider one-half of 1 per cent of boracic acid in butter objectionable. (421, 422.)

Dr. BILLINGS says the dosage of borax is about like that of soda; for a grown person 10, 20, or even 30 grains three times a day for a week or two would be safe-probably more than one would get in butter and meat in a year. One does not give that amount continuously; one would not think of giving soda or common salt daily in that amount; the stomach would not tolerate it after a time. Borax, or boric acid (which is the essential acid from which borax is made) like everything else, would be poisonous if overused medicinally, especially in certain individuals, as some individuals have idiosyncrasies even as to the use of simple foods, such as honey or fresh fish; but there is no common bad effect from borax. Dr. Billings considers it no more injurious in overdosage than common salt would be. Fish and meats preserved with common salt, if used too frequently and without other foods, produce scurvy; and if meats preserved with borax were used in the same way an untoward effect might be produced; but he thinks the same amount of borax can be safely used as of salt. There is probably no more danger in its constant use than in that of salt. Both common salt and