New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-06-23
pRESERVATIVES AND DIGESTION.

The United States is not the only country that
is afflicted with adulterated food. Chemical
preservation of meat and milk so far prevails In
England that there Is a demand for strcter laws,
and a Government committee Is considering the
subject In connection with the new Sale Of Food
and Drugs bill. SO simultaneously the govern
ments of both branches of the Anglo Saxon
people are studying the danger from the use OF
chemicals in food. and learning from experts
how extensively they are employed notwth-
standing the protests OF Gamers that they never
RELY on them always followed by the apologize
remark that even II they did they would be
blameless, for all the preparations which. OF
course, to be sure they know nothing about-are
entirely harmless.
One correspondent Of "The Lancet" announces
that he has recently found in fresh meat, and
more especially IN fresh" fish, in firstclass res
taurants In London and Paris indications that
they were preserved" after they had become
unfit for human food. These dishes, while not
seemingly stale 10 the taste or smell, had
slight flavor comparable TO ether and left per
sistent bitter taste in the mouth. "The Lancet
says It's correspondent probably encountered
formalln. which il says should not be tolerated
In food an opinion highly significant, In view of
It's conservative attitude In favor of permitting
under regulations, the use OF such preservatives
as can be definitely shown to be surely harm
less OF formalin II says: Nothing could be
more instructive than the experimental evil
"dence which shows that the protelds OF milk
containing formaln fail TO yield TO the dIges
tive action OF pepsIn. This Is very serious
point, especially when we consider the POSSIBLE
hat foods trpatp1 and tlus rendered
worse than valueless. may be given to nvalids
cor 10 infants" That is truth that should not
be lost sight of in considering not merely forna
liz but all the other chemicals commonly relied
OIL to resist the natural processes of decay The
minute we make food indestructbe we destroy
It's character as food and that is just what
almost If not all the chemical preservatives
do The process of digestion IL process OF
breaking down tissues and anything that pre-
serves those tissues against the breakdown
makes the tissues unfit for food. People talk
about fOrmalln. salycc acid. boric acid and all
the rest being harmless. We are told they
are not poison. Perhaps not. Neither Is pine
board nor piece Of shoe leather poison. Yet
nobody would find in board or leather suitable
food. Both articles are indestructbe by the dl-
gestive fluids Perhaps the raw hide might
have been dissolved In the stomach, but the tan
ming fluid preserved II. At one stage OF vegeta-
bic growth the trees substance might have
been dlgestble, as sugar or starch, but Nature 4
chemical laboratory embamed 1t as woody
fibre So with the meat and vegetables, which
I'm the natural state were digestible and still re-
manned 80 after being canned In the old simple
fashions But tan their tissues with chemicals
and they become as leather TO the stomach
The chemicals themselves may not I'm reasona
BILE quantities be harmful 10 the stomach, but II
they preserve" food tissues against fermenta-
ton and other natural chemical changes In a
natural atmosphere. and consequently against
digestion, they are harmful and should be pro-
hlblted.
This is an aspect OF the case that has been too
frequently ignored in the discussion Of food
aduteraton. Cold Is an effective arrester OF
decomposition for the time that 1t is applied
but is in no sense n preservatye. for when the
food is restored to ordinary atmosphere the nat
ural processes are resumed. So fruit preserved