The Monticellonian., 1904-10-20
Sweet Beverages of the Summer Time Flavored with Poisonous
 Matter.

This IS the season of the ill-smelling l pot of coal lar, smoking at the curb stone in con junction with the pile of gravel and the hesting apparatus 10 the new roof But for one to step to this odOriferous center of smells and offer friend draft of liquid black in Sood fellowship would be 10 invite the wagon from the detention hospital. says the Chicago Tribune. For the coal tar drink the thirsty one invites his friend to the corner drug store or into the recesses of the confectioner shop, where soda and ice cream soda water are dispensed without regard to the pure food laws of the state.
 For. according to the best evidences of the senses, in connection with the researches Of the analytical chemist, the market for cheap ice cream and soda water is more dependent upon the condition of the Standard Oil company than the unsuspecting ever have had cause 10 dream. Not only this, but it IS hard to determine just where the interest of the manufacturing and con suming public begins and ends i'll the coioring matter that goes into the products of drug store, bakery, distil- lery. eonfeetioncr.s shop and preserve factory
 For instance. iu one of the big Chi cago laboratories for chemical expert ment and research one may always find two or three baskets Of guinea pigs of assorted shades, still more assortedly oolored and tinted and shad- ed with the eolors of the spectrum as taken from the composite black of coal tar. These little animals are the unconscious demonstrators of whether or not certain browns and reds and blues and yellows and greens that have been elaborated for the coloring Of foodstuffs are to prove poisonous ID the human system. Just what the term poisonous shall mean is not made wholly clear to the layman who asks the questions Presumably, if the dose as measured out for the little animal turns it's cold toes into the air within the demonstrating period some other color will be adopted by the experi- menting manufacturer, even if it should cost few cents more a gallon than his coal tar discovery. But If the pig is only made little sick from iR- digestion-well, business is business,
 There are some wonderful possibili- ties in the summer drinks that are served from the marble top soda foun- tains of Chicago A coal tar drink, with coal tar fruit tint blending with the ice cream favored with coal tar fumes. is commonplace as a possibility Fruit HaVors produced from acids that have mixed with alcohol to produce ethers are common. and in the sweet ening recourse may be had to sac charin that sweetest of all sweets. that comes also from the black depths of the coal tar vat.
 in spite of all of this as a likelihood al the soda counter. it is conceded every where that the products of coal tar and petroleum universally are poisonous to the human system. In any of these products it is a question of degree h the fruit sirups of commerce the GUS toner at the soda fountain takes his greatest risks. Fruit sirups of the purest may be served here and there; it is con ceded that fruits and sugars enter into the best candies that are put upon the market as well as into the best cakes and ices. But it is certainty that the average cheap ice cream soda dispensed over the average counter is wholly chemical product, almost as nearly al lied to petroleum as is gasoline
 1sI + II colors that enter into sodas and confec- tiens of the cheaper class. said a we'll known chemist This oil is the active poison that may result from the color combinations. In creating some of tho shades desired. arsenieal compounds ara used in connection with the aniline oil. and in addition to the menace of the free aniline. there are the arsenic poi sons
 "It is hard 10 determine just what one of these aniline colors may be and do. The only way to demonstrate is to try it on the guinea pig Again, one indi- vidual may suffer from one of these col ors and another may take it almost with impunity In the main. however they are all poisons Some of the products of coal tar are so poisonous that few drops or few grains will produce death There is carbolic acid. for in stance; every one knows what it is. and yet it is product of coal tar and is at the foundation of these colors and sweets and havors that are in the tar. Every drug that is made from coal tar is con- sidered poisonous in more or less de- gree. and the physician prescribing any of them is prepared to watch results closely
 'In serving soda water of this chem ical constituency. the clerk at the cour- ter ordinarily pours out at least two ounces of the sirup to each glass. Tie person who is addicted to these drinks may figure upon how much poison his system feeds in a day where the aver age number Of glasses reaches four or