The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1888-04-21

A PHOSPHATE BAKING POWDER THE
DRY THAT Is DANGEROUS IF NOT
RIDICULOUS.

sition, put forth by the manufactur.
ers of some of the patented or pro-
prietary articles Of food, that their
products possess a superior whole
someness because they contain
drug of some particular medicinal
property. Phosphates, alum, lime,
arsenic, calomel, ETC., have their
places as specifics for different dis
eases, and are invaluable medical
remedies, each in its place. But
they are not cure-alls. The physi-
sician who should prescribe either
calomel, or strychnine, or rhubarb
three times day to man, woman
and child, sick or well, because
either of such drugs is a well known
remedy for some certain disease,
would receive but little honor from
the fraternity and lese practice from
the community.
No one will controvert this state
ment yet we find manufacturers of
baking powders claiming superior
hygienic virtue for their productions
and urging their continuous use be-
cause they are alleged to carry the
phosphate used in making them "a
cheap substitute for cream of tartar,
procured from the bones of dead
animals) into the food, although
well aware, as they must be, of the
fact that with the constant use of
such article this drug must pass in
to our systems daily, no matter what
may be our physical conditions or
requirements, or whether or not we
may be suffering from some ailment
wherein the use of such drug would
be positively detrimental. Both
alum and phosphates are useful
medicaments in certain diseases;
but they should no more be taken
indiscriminately day after day and
without the prescription of a physi-
clan, than arsenic, aconite or calo-
mel; indeed, there are conditions Of
the system, particularly with wom-
en-, when the prudent physicians
would be loath to permit the use Of
lime phosphates even as a medi-
cine.
The fallacy of this claim of the
manufacturers Of phosphate baking
powders will be appafentto all when
the fact, well known to physicians,
is stated, that in average health and
with ordinary food the body gets
more phosphates than are are re-
quired or can be assimilated, as is
evinced by the fact that they are
constantly being expelled in the ex-
cretions, both solid and liquid like
wise the statement that is is neces-
sarp to avoid phosphates to the bak-
ing powder to restore to the flour
those which have been lost in the
milling, for it is true that fine -four
as at present made actually contains
a larger percentage of phosphates
than the grain Of wheat itself,
The object of baking powders is
not to provide the body with a med
icine, but simply to vesticulate or
make light the mixture of flour, so
as 10 render it when baked easy of
mastication and perfectly digestible.
The most celebrated experts in the
business have worked for the per-
fection of an article that should do
this mechanically, adding to or TAX
ing from the -four nothing, nor in
any way effecting change in its
properties or constituents. When
this has been done the perfect leay-
ening agent has been discovered.
The manufacturers of the Royal
Baking Powder have succeeded in
this so far as to make a leavening
agent that vesticulates and raises
the loaf most perfectly, and without
changing the properties of the -four,
while the residum from it has been
reduced to a minimum. The acid
employed, however, to produce this
result is not phosphate, but the acid
of highly purifned cream of tartar,
which the health authorities agree,
renders that powder perfectly pure
and more reliable and healthful than
any other. The recent official tests
show, on the other hand, that the
best the phosphate baking powder
makers can do is to produce an ar
ticle that is one-third or more resi-
dunn or impurity.
We want our food pure especial
ly do we not wish to take alum,
lime and phosphates with it at the
dictum of manufacturers who may
find it cheaper to claim virtue for
the impurities than to remove them.
THE dairyman that sells milk only
is interested in the cow that gives a
large flow of milk; but the butter