The great value of this law to the people of this country can hardly be estimated. It means better health and greater efficiency among all classes. And it should mean higher moral standards in the business of daily life. Many people do not realize their responsibilities in regard to pure food laws. In food, as in everything else, the demand controls the supply. If the consumer demands pure food and will not accept any other there will be no market for an adulterated or debased food, and so it will not be supplied. Lack of knowledge of the subject is largely the reason why so many housekeepers are not more actively interested in pure food laws and their enforcement. There is plenty of literature on this subject, but because of its official or technical aspect the busy housekeeper is not always attracted to it. My wide experience with the women of this country has convinced me that the average woman is conscientious and ready to do the right thing. It is for this reason that I am giving the following brief outline, the food laws and what has led to them.

It is probable that the habit of adulterating and debasing foods has existed for many centuries. But with the growth of chemical science and modern machinery adulteration and falsification have made rapid progress, and so fine and subtle is some of the work it is difficult to detect it. There is not space in these few pages to go very far back in the history of food adulteration and food laws.

Hassall in his "Food and Adulteration" says, "During the course of the six years from 1850 to 1856 the author examined over 3,000 samples of the principal articles of consumption, as well as many drugs, and the one great result of this extended experience went to prove that during those years there were few articles of consumption the adulteration of which was practicable, and which, at the same time, could be rendered profitable, which were not extensively subjected to adulteration."

"Since the period referred to he has analysed some thousands of additional samples with the gratifying result that adulteration does not now prevail to anything like its former extent, this result being due to several causes: To the exposures made for so long a period in the 'Lancet'; to the increased facilities for detecting adulteration; to the several enquiries into the subject by Parliamentary Committees; and to the Acts which have been passed dealing with the subject. But although not nearly so prevalent as formerly, it yet does prevail to a large extent, and we believe that it is again increasing, and that much legalised adulteration will take place under the Sale of Food and Drug Act, a measure framed in the interests of the manufacturers of, and dealers in, food." In our own country nearly every state in the Union has some kind of a food law. The pure food laws of Connecticut are nearly as comprehensive as the National pure food law. The U. S. government, the state governments, town authorities and individuals have been working to prevent adulteration and sale of impure foods. Every state has an agricultural experiment station, where foods and farming interests are studied. Some of these stations have been made available for the analysis of foods suspected of adulteration. The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station has done splendid work along these lines. The annual reports are most interesting and instructive. The Bureau of Chemistry of the U. S. Department of Agriculture has been working for years for better food laws, both for home products and imported foods. Notwithstanding state laws and all the work done for pure food adulteration continued, because the food laws were not the same in all the states. It finally became apparent that to eradicate the evil there must be a National pure food law. For about eighteen years legislation to bring this about was constantly before Congress. Finally all the work done by the noble army of men and women, who devoted themselves to this problem for so many years, was rewarded by the passage of the bill, which became a law, June, 1906. The advantage of the National law is that the same laws apply to all the states. Each state enforces the law. The most essential part of the law for the housekeeper to know are the parts relating to adulteration in food and misbranding, which are quoted below.