Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-13
AGAINST USE OF
SODA BENZOATE
PHYSICIANS AND CHEMISTS
GIVE VIEWS
EFFECTS HARMFUL ON INVALlDs
AND CHILDREN
Efforts to Resume Use of PreserVa-
tives Considered an Attempt to
Undo Good Accomplished by
the Pure Food Law

compilation of expressions of promi-
nent physicians in regard to the use of
benzoate of soda in ketchup preserves
dairy products meat products, etc.
shows that, while in view of the Rem
sen boards experiments, some are not
prepared to say that small quantities
of the drug may not be used without
harmful effect to healthy persons, the
opinion is unanimous that no benefit to
the consumer can be had from taking
it into the system in ar quantity
whatever Coupled with this negative
opinion is the unanimous conclusion
that in the case of children and an
Valids. with which classes the physi-
clans are most concerned, the effect OF
chemically preserved foods cannot but
be injurious.
Those who have given the subject
deepest consideration believe that the
upsetting of the conclusions reached
by the department of agriculture that
the use of benzoate of soda should he
prohibited. is but the entering wedge
to the overturning or emasculating OF
the pure food law Experiments are
now being made by the Remsen board
with the sulphuretting of fruits, with
the probabilities favoring a conclusion
that in this case also the department
of agriculture went astraY and the
possibility of a future ruling permit
ting this practice.
Effort to Undo Good
Behind these two come borax and
formaldehyde, and already tentative
"feelers" are being sent out to the et-
feet that after all there is a chance that
borax has been unjustly condemned and
it's use should be permitted. These
facts give ground to the suspicion that
concerted movement is on foot to
undo the good done and to restore con-
ditions, as far as preservatiVes are
concerned, to what they were before
the passage of the national pure food
law.
The Association of State and Ma
tionai Dairy and Food departments,
which fought so hard for the pure
food law, is gravely concerned about
these insidious attacks on this statute,
and at its meeting in August at Den
yer will consider ways and means to
preserve the law in Its integrity and
entirety.
The first victory for the 'preserva-
tive" element having been on ben
Zoate of soda, the use of that drug Is
now the bone of contention. Some of
the extracts from opinions Of physi-
clans which have been collected are as
follows:
Prof. John Uri Lloyd of Cincinnati,
former president of the United States
Pharmaceutical association, says; I'm
my opinion, the corruptionists in the
direction of canned goods and such
have now been driven to the last
ditch, and their methods would have
been annihilated could the introduction
of chemical preserVatives have been
altogether prevented. =. Under
these circumstances | believe we should
still resist the putting into foods that
are eaten daily by our people of a
product such as benzoic acid, or ben
zoate of soda, may be.
Use Condemned
Speaking of such preservatives in
general DR.. V. c. Vaughn, dean of the
medical faculty of Ann Arbor univer-
sity, Michigan, says: LAS a rule their
use is condemned for two reasons. In
the first place, like coloring matter,
1t enables a man to sell a poor grade
article in place of a better grade, and
in the second place it enables the
manufacturer to be less careful in other
means of preservation"
Dr. James w. Holland, professor of
texicology in the jefferson Medical col
lege: ut defeats the efforts of the
human system to assimilate or destroy
it,"
Dr. Harvey W. Wiley. chief chemist
of the department of agriculture, says:
"Benzoate of soda is highly objec-
tionable and produces a very serious
disturbance of the metabolic functions
attended with injury to digestion and
health. The evidence points so strong
ly to the poisonous properties of pre-
servatives that their use as class
should. under the act, be inhibited in
foods and food products"
DR. O. Harlan Wells. president of
the Philadelphia Academy of Medi
Gins. says There is absolutely no
adequate reason for the use of ben
zonate of soda as a preservative for
foods. To legalize its use would open
up a wide door for fraud and endanger
public health by making possible and
profitable the employment of inferior
and unsuitable materials in the manu-
facture of food preparations"
Unfair to Consumer
Prof. Charles H laval, chemist of
Pennsylvania State Dairy and Food
commission. speaking of the Remsen
boards report, says 1.-The use OF
sodium benzoate is bad in principle. 1t
is unfair to the consumer. The expert
ments conducted by the referee CRem-
SEM board were made on healthy per-
sons and did not clear away the doubts
as to the danger Of using this preserva-
| tive The process or using benzolc
acid in preparing meat is an indica-
ton that we are going back 5000 years,
| for benzoin or it's products has not
been used in the preservation of flesh
since the Egyptians stopped embalm-
| ing their dead"
Discussing the constituents of benzo-
| ate of soda, DIR. H. S. Blackmore of
| Washington, D. c., says: THE drug
contains the tcive principles of car
| bolic acid, a corrosive poison, and
acetanilid, much used in metricius
headache powders, which are con-
demned by every reputable physician;
other contents are constituents of for
maldenhyde and of benZoyl, the active
| principle of cocaine. On the
effect of the drug when consumed by
invalids and young children the Referee
Bemsen board did not pass"
| DIR. Christian A. Herter of Columbia
university, one Of the three experiment.
! ing members of the Remsen board in
discussing in his report certain devia-
lions from the physiological functions
Of his subjects, says: I'VE would Of
| fer the hypothesis that the phenomena
in question are best accounted for by
the supposition that the CASTRO enteric
mucosa in some parts of it's course
had been subjected to slight stimulant
or Initiative action and that this ac-
| ton was exerted by the continued use
of rather large doses of sodium ben
/ ZOate"