The Florida agriculturist., 1906-02-28

siderably retards the digestive pro-
cesses in the mouth, the stomach, and
the intestines. Even a very small
quantity of the substance he found
to prevent completely the action of
the saliva upon the starch in food, its
effect being such as if one swallowed
his bread whole. And for those suffer
ing from the so-called sugar disease,
diabetes. who had been particularly
promised relief by the use of sac
charm, Professor Plugge added to his
report the cautionary statement that
for just such patients, for whom per-
feet digestion is of such moment, he
regarded the use of saccharin as eX-
tremely deleteriOus.
Notwithstanding the many citations
of the harmlesSneSS of saccharin," !"
wrote Professor Plugge, mo little
weight should be attached to the ex-
perience of such investigators as
Worms, Dujardin-B -BeaumetZ, and
others, particularly since investiga-
tions outside the faculty have abun-
dainty shown that this substance is
a real obstacle to the digestive pro-
cess"
A few years ago, in 1900, Bernstein.
resuming the work of Plugge, demon
strated anew that saccharin prevents
the assimilation of food, and thus les
sens the capacity for labor. Indeed,
there is one well-established fact that
fully confirms Plugge's unfavorable
judgment The sufferers from diabe-
tes not only complain that saccharin
produces nausea, but that it seriously
interferes with their digestion. And
this was the reason also why the
French Health Department, so long as
seventeen years ago. expressed very
unfavorable opinion of this substance,
there called sucre de homille, as a
substitute for sugar.
There is, however, another and still
more serious question-viz., Is sac
charm a poison?
Many answer this in the negative,
and they appeal, first, to the fact that
in practice saccharin poisoning is
seldom or never heard of; and. second
ly, to the fact that in experiments
with animals only there is a fatal
effect observed when an unusually
large quantity of this substance is adj
miniStered.
That one cannot be poisoned with
saccharin as with Prussic acid, is, of
course, undeniable. But weaker
poison may. nevertheless. be very in
furious. On one occasion. in 1902, an
entire family in the city of Prague
was made i'll from the immoderate use
of saccharin, and one of them even
lost his life thus. Nor should it be
forgotten that in the German Empire
against the use of saccha-
rim were very early established by the
passage of the Susstoff Gesetz. a law
regulating the sale of sweets, and that
in many other countries the sale of
this article has been placed under
strong restrictions. so that the likeli-
hood of poisoning by the consumption
at once of large quantities of it is
made well-nigh impossible
The first intimation of poisoning by
saccharin occurs in the form of
severe diarrhoea.
Those who may still have some
doubts on this matter are advised to
make the following simple experiment:
Put some live fish into solution of
saccharin. They will speedily show
great restlessness. change color. and
lose the sense of direction in swim
ming; in one word. they are poisoned. |
In a sugar solution, nothing of the
sort would be observed Now. just |
rs in the fish the saccharin solution