El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-13


al color is not good enough for the
most fastidious. The Gamers say that
fruits and vegetables when cooked
turn slightly yellow, and that the long
err they stsnd the yellower they get.
Pasteur said at the time of his analyses
that ssthe green color Is in itself SUI
ficient evidence of the presence OF cop
per; without it the vegetables would be
Enthusiastically yellow" This 1s OF
of ..reverdissage'' having been dis
covered. According to the Gamers,
there exists in the minds of the public
q preference for copper greened vege-
tables. Whether this is q taste In
herited from the bronze age, or arises
from desire on the part of some peo-
pie to palm off the canned article for
fresh, the Gamers do not state. They
merely insist that in using copper they
are supplying a public demand,
which is ali that could be expected Of
them.
The constant repetition of this argu-
ment reminds one of the story of Tom
Sawyer and his aunt's cat. The cat
seeing Tom with the psinkiller asked for
some, begged for 1t, absolutely insisted
upon having it. Tom was cautious.
He said warnirgly, care you sure
you want it? Because, if you don't,
1 don't want to give 1t to you" Tom
the feline Tom-wss sure and got the
in sentiment the reader is respectfully
referred to the original.
1t is especially emphasized thst
England and America insist upon
having coppered foods and refuse to be
happy with anything else. The fact
that London dealers were being prose-
cuted for selling the goods in question
is dismissed as irrelevant. Apropos OF
this supposed foreign demand it was
suggested that some mark be adopted
for labelling by means of which the
copper goods can be furnished "unbe-
knownst' to the foreigner and the
natural article reserved for home use.
There is no denying that France has
from time immemorial a long score OF
injuries to settle with England, but
this seemed an underhanded way OF
getting even ard the government re-
fused to auction 1t.
Another point of disagreement is as
to the amount of copper added. The
Gamers claim that the quantity Is too
email to be harmful, Is parts per mil
lion being ample for coloring and any
excess imparting a metallic taste at
once discernible besides giving blush
color instead of the desired green.
The Comite repeatedly shows the falsi-
ty of these statements, proving by nu-
merous analyses that the Gamers hebi-
tually add anywhere from 20 to 200
parts per million of copper, and by
numerous tests, personal and
that such goods can be
eaten without warning from the sense
of taste. The analyses recently made
BY the United States department of
agriculture show the same thing.
In the mean time Investigations had
been made in a slightly different direc-
ton but bearing equally on the sub
ject of copper in canned foods. Is has
been known for msnyyears that copper
existed in the human body
and that it occurred in some we'll known
and universally used vegetable prod
ucts. 1t was found in bread and flour.
In many of the grains. in chocolate, n
some fruits, in animals especially in
the liver, in the red wing feathers of
the tuaco, or plantain-eater, and in
the body of a new born infant. From
these instances many maintained that
Its occurrence was not accidental but
That copper Is a natural constituent OF
and animal tissues. Careful
followed. The recorded
cases of alleged copper poisoning were
reviewed. The condition Of
those engaged in work involving the
use VI CoPpOH SoiOo " &c SSuo-
ed. The various salts of copper were
,ested on animals and afterwards on
men as to toxic effect, and search was
made anew in the animal and vegets-
Die kingdoms for traces of the metal.
AS a result copper collie and brass
ague, diseases once supposed
10 be as common as lead collie, are pro-
as most exceptional.
Death according to some authorities,
has never certainly resulted from the
lse of copper or its salts. Workers
although they become so thoroughly
with it that the skin,
Eyes, and hair show it, live to a good
I'D age and enjoy average health: more
han average 1T may almost be said,
ince the antiseptic action of copper is
ufficient to preserve them from cpl
lemics of cholera and typhoid fever.
Canned goods colored with copper had
,een on the market for twenty-five or
thirty years and no case of illness from
heir use recorded. Workers in the
lived on them almost ex-
When themselves con-
ulted on this point, however, they
rade the complaint of all cooks that
hey did not care for food they were
obliged to handle continually, and,
renee, ate very little of the preserves
hey were preparing for market.
Apropos of the wide distribution of
copper in nature, it must be stated that
here were analysts who sought and
ound it not, and that these asserted
hat their colleagues who did find it,
we're themselves responsible for it's
presence. having allowed it to enter
;he samples analysed from contact with
copper instruments, brass lamps, ETC.,
lsed in the process of analysis.
1t must be admitted that the salts of
copper are not so dangerous a mixture
rs was once supposed. They are to be
,lassed among emetics rather than
among deadly poisons. Nobody can
ieny that even in small doses, copper