The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-09-15
agricultural.
T. H. HoskINs, M. D., Editor,
Newport, Vermont.
Poisonous OleO..-MOre Science.v

The Boston CultiUdtor makes the
following statements
Some of the acids used in making
oleomargarine are what are known as
communicative poisons. That is to say,
they are poisons not acting at once,
but remaining in the system until they
accumulate virulence enough to cause
sudden sickness and perhaps death.
And yet it is such stuff as this that paid
lobbyists to plead for as blessing to the
poor man and his best substitute for
butter.
In reply to correspondent, who asks
whether " saltwater" is injurious, the
same paper, in the same issue, says:
1t is simply water charged with car
bonic acid gas under pressure. This
gas was formerly obtained from car
Donate of soda, from which the bever-
age derives its name. The gas is now
obtained by the action of sulphuric
acid upon marble-dust Carbonate of
lime), but neither acid nor lime enters
into the composition of saltwater.
We have made careful study of all
reports upon oleomargarine and other
imitation buffers, by chemical author
tiles, and we have yet to see one which
states the existence of any acid in the
marketed product, except the butyric,
or other organic acids of a similar
class, which are peculiar to butter, and
the presence of which in oleo is due to
the admixture with that substance of
genuine butter. The Cultivator does
not name any of the several acids"
which is itself a suspicious circum-
stance, as any chemical analysis by a
reputable authority would be sure to
state not only their names but also the
proportions in which they were found.
The only ground upon which other
than butter acids are alleged to exist in
imitation buffers is the publication of
certain patents, said to have been
issued, in which the use of mineral
acids for the publication or deodoriza-
ton of inferior fats and butter is pro-
posed. So far as we know, there is no
evidence that these patents have ever
been worked, it probably having been
found that it is cheaper to use pure ma
terials than to attempt the publication
of those which are rancid and impure.
But even were these acids used, it
would be necessary to remove them
thoroughly, by washing or otherwise,
before putting the product upon the
market, otherwise their presence would
be apparent to the taste of the most
careless purchaser. There is no chem
list or physician of repute who would
put his name to the statement that any
of the acids named in the patents re-
ferred to, if present in any food product
in such small quantities only as not to
be tasted, would produce cumulative,
or any other poisonous action on the
human system. And, by the way, the
writer of the Cultivator's paragraph is
so ignorant that he plainly does not
know the meaning of the word 4" cumu-
lative," as used in medicine, any bet
ter than he knows how to spell it. 1t
does not mean that poisons in the sys-
tenn accumulate virulence enough
to cause sudden sickness and perhaps
death. 1t means that certain poisons
taken in small doses may not be elm
mated with sufficient rapidity, so that
after awhile enough of the poison
may be gathered to produce the symp-
toms arising from single large dose.
1t is not an accumulation of viru-
lence," whatever that may be supposed
to mean, but an accumulation of the
poison itself which is meant by COM
mulative action. And it is exactly that
cumulative action which makes copper
soda fountains dangerous to health. A
little of the sulphuric acid used to lib
crate the carbonic acid gas from marble
dust is almost invariably carried over
with the watery vapor generated at the
fountain" The presence of this acid
is not in itself injurious, for pure sui
phuric acid, though violent caustic,
is not poison. But its presence in the
" saltwater" causes a portion of the
copper of the fountain, or of its lead
connections, to be dissolved. In such
case the cumulative " action of
mineral poisoning might in time be de-
veloped with a person who should be a
very frequent customer of such foun-
tain. But as there is no popularity to
be gained by stating this fact, while
much is supposed to be got by any
allegation prejudicial to cleo, it is easy,
without much lack of charity, to see
the purpose of this specimen of " Cul-
tiuator science"
Kainit-- Pear Blight.