Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-09-14

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11:-Here
is a type of newspaper headline long
familiar to the American public
Seven of Family Ill After Eating
Canned Soup The average reader
shakes his head over the item and
wonders II the restaurant where he
ate his lunch served him canned or
fresh vegetables in that salad, lie
decides that he will be careful about
eating canned stuff at home.
For the average person thai is The
end Of the affair. He forgets about
the sick family. but the news item
has deposited in his mind a little
more of the sediment that makes up
FOR him the deepseated conviction
that canned foods. though cheap,
are hazardous and are to be partanen
of only at ones peril.
The publication of such an item.
however-and dozens Of such items
are published every year in the
American newspapers-is only the
beginning OF an episode for an or
ganization maintained in Washington
by the packers of commercially can
49, oCt Ills olSdlllZdllOD, ll6
National Gamers Association,
occupied for the most part with
problems in science, now constitutes
an investigation bureau. Its agents
get quickly on the job-within "a
hours If possible. If the case Is a
serious one, difficult of solution, it
will call in the services of some
specialist from one of the great
universities. The investigation VIII
probably end in a laboratory some
where.
By whatever mean the investig-
alton is conducted, the chances are
that the canned foods blamed will
be shown to be innocent and the i'll
ness laid to some other cause. AS
to the sick family cited above. tie
chemists test tube demonstrated
that the illness was due to some I'M
wholesome meat served at the meal.
HI canned soup was perfectly
wholesome.
The fact Is that commercially can-
ned food today is the victim OF a
legend. Whether there Was ever any
basis in fact for the belief that such
food is dangerous, there certainly is
little basis for it now. The unmer-
tied evil reputation of timed food is
kept alive today principally by doc
tors. either through ignorance or
carlessness. A family suddenly De
comes Ill, obviously the victims of
poison. The family doctor inquiries
Immediately what the members have
eaten. If by any chance canned
food Of any sort has been or the
menu, 1t Is enough. The doctor
promptly names the culprit, and the
newspapers have another sensation
al item. The doctor may not know
that science has shown that the
presumption of guilt lies just as
heavily. IL not more heavily, upon
the fresh food eaten by his patients,
Indeed, it is probably a safe state
ment that fresh foods today are more
likely to be unwholesome than
canned foods. The laboratory OF the
Harvard Medical School has already
demonstrated this fact.
Camera Sought Truth
A few years ago the leading food
Gamers of the country, believing in
the purity of their product and sus-
pecting that many OF the published
instances of canned-food poisoning
were unfounded, determined to make
independent investigation Of all cases
reported in the newspapers. Taey
had organized the National Gamers
Association, and they charged this
body with the responsibility of get
ting at the truth. The subsequent
investigations have shown that there
is a surprisingly small number OF
bona fide ~poisonings, particularly
when it is considered that the AMIR
lean public consumes hundreds OF
millions of tins of food every year
Every canned-food poisoning case
reported in the newspapers for the
last dozen years has been carefully
Investigated by this Association, arc
practically all have been found &c
be spurious. The things that get n
to the newspapers as cases of poison
ing by canned food nearly always
prove to he cases of acute indiSes'
ton. of excessive eating, of fore:gr
substances getting into food willie
being prepared for the table, of dir
ty cooking utensils, of deliberate
fraud. or as 1t happened once. ever
a leaky gas pipe in a dining room
AS a grim by-product of these In
designations, four murders have beer
uncovered by the agents of thu
Association and one case OF suicide
reve One woman poisoned kel
husband by putting Paris green in
to canned sardines. The sardine'