A practice has developed on the part of manufacturers and handlers of such food materials as meats, fish, canned goods, and sauces, of applying to these, or introducing into them, certain compounds known as preservatives. The most common of these compounds are boric acid, salicylic acid, and sodium salicylate, benzoic acid, sodium benzoate, and sulfurous acid and sulfites. Formaldehyde has also been used. The effect of these is to prevent the activity of the germ life that causes destructive changes in animal and vegetable products. Manufacturers of canned goods have sometimes found it difficult to "process" their goods so as to entirely prevent later fermentations and, at the same time, not develop undesirable flavors in the contents of the cans, and some canners have at times taken advantage of preservatives as an easy way of overcoming this difficulty. On the other hand, many manufacturers have withheld from this practice. Sauces such as tomato catsup have been found to contain benzoic acid. Preservatives have also been used in milk, and boric acid has been found on salt fish and meats. These are merely examples of the extensive use of preservatives. 326. Should the use of preservatives in food products be permitted? - This matter has received much attention in the way of scientific investigation and legislation. The most extended recent study of this question was conducted by Dr. H. W. Wiley, chief chemist of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and his verdict is unfavorable to the use in foods of any of the common preservatives. He concludes from his data that benzoic acid as such or as sodium benzoate, administered in from 1 to 2 grams per day, causes disturbances of digestion attended by headache and nausea, loss of weight, and other results; that when ½ gram of boric acid is taken daily, no marked effects are immediately produced, but that ultimately there is a loss of appetite, and the general health suffers, and that a daily dose of as high as 4 to 5 grains caused some subjects to become ill and unfit for duty; that formaldehyde in food " tends to derange metabolism, disturb the normal functions, and produce irritations, and undue stimulation of the secretory activities"; that salicylic acid in daily doses of.2 gram to 2 grams, while stimulating at first, ultimately loses its stimulating property and "becomes a depressant," "tending to break down tissues of the body more rapidly than they are built up," " disturbs the metabolic processes," has a tendency to diminish the weight of the body, and produces "a feeling of discomfort and malaise"; thatsulfurous acid or sodium sulfite in daily quantities of.113 to.762 gram of the latter disturbs metabolism, retards the assimilation of organic phosphorous compounds, creates a "marked tendency to the production of albuminuria," and causes the " impoverishment of the blood with respect to the number of red and white corpuscles."

Protests against Dr. Wiley's conclusions caused the appointment of a commission consisting of three well-known biological chemists, to investigate the issues involved. This has been done in the case of sodium benzoate, and these scientists are unanimous in concluding that neither small (.3 gram) nor large (.6 gram to 6 grams) daily doses, continued for considerable periods of time, produced any appreciable effect upon the metabolism and health of the subjects under experiment. If this latter conclusion is fully accepted, then there is no just ground for excluding sodium benzoate from human foods, provided the existing provisions of federal and state laws are obeyed, which require that each package of goods containing a preservative shall carry a statement of its kind and amount so present. The methods used by the Department of Agriculture are criticised as to the manner of administering the experimental substances on the ground that in concentrated forms (in capsules) these substances are an irritant, but that when taken in very dilute forms, evil effects are not observed.