The demand for cheap goods and the intense strain produced by commercial competition has induced many dealers and manufacturers to adulterate their products. This practice enables them to satisfy the buyer and outwit their competitors, not to speak of the immediate financial advantage

Bates, C. O.

English

University of Northern Iowa

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science Volume 8 Annual Issue Article 30 1900 Pure Food Laws C. O. Bates Copyright ©1900 Iowa Academy of Science, Inc. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias Recommended Citation Bates, C. O. (1900) "Pure Food Laws," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 8(1), 206-210. Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol8/iss1/30 This Research is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa Academy of Science at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science by an authorized editor of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact scholarworks@uni.edu. 206 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.top of the terrace, several rods in width, renders it impossible that such fragments dropped off from some overhanging bank. If we assume that the terrace was deposited by the river while at its present size and that it hassince cut down its valley leaving the terrace above it, weare at a loss to account for the soil-covered loess immediately under the terrace deposits. It seems evident, therefore, that the terrace in question was formed by a verybrief and great rise in the waters of the Turkey river.PURE FOOD LAWS.C. 0. BATES.The demand for cheap goods and the intense strain produced by commercial competition has induced many dealers and manufacturers to adulterate their products. Thispractice enables them to satisfy the buyer and outwittheir competitors, not to speak of the immediate financialadvantage.Many and wonderful have been the schemes to cheapenand multiply food and drug products. Some of them havebeen along the lines of honest scientific investigation anddiscovery. And their triumphs remain as perpetual monuments to such thought and enterprise. It is not to thisside of the subject that we wish to give attention in thispaper, but to the other side of the subject, viz.: the schemesfor cheapening and multiplying food products by fraudand deception.There is no law until there is an infringement of rights.Pure food laws, like the common laws of England, are theoutgrowth of the just and righteous demand of an honest,prosperous and progressive people. It is not a " King John''that they have to contend with, but a more subtile, selfishand powerful " King Mammon." While the question ofPure Food Laws is in its incipient stage in this country, itshould receive the hearty support of every thoughtful1Bates: Pure Food LawsPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1900IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 5207person. Such laws are based on sound principles, andwhen properly brought to light, will be sustained by anintelligent public sentiment.It was the dream of Napoleon to obtain food directfrom the elements and their ordinary compounds withoutthe aid and intervention of life force, but he did not resortto mixing ground cigar boxes with cinnamon, or pulverizedcocoanut shells with pepper in order that each soldierof his army might receive his full weight of rations.A greater army than Napoleon's striving for greaterconquests exists on the American continent to-day, viz.:The American people, striving not only to establish goodgovernment and individual protection, but also to extendthis good government and individual protection to the veryfood we eat and drink. In order to do this it is necessarythat the government call to its aid all the light that science is able to give; and as chemistry is the most fundamental and exact of the sciences, to begin with, the workwill be largely one of chemical investigation.Among the many subjects that may come before theAcademy of Sciences of the State of Iowa, none would beof more interest or of greater value to the public than theinvestigation first, of food products, and second, theireffects on the human system.The wholesale adulteration of food products, is a greatevil, injurious alike to the reputable dealer and to the public.A drug is adulterated when it differs in strength, qualityof purity, from that laid down in the Pharmacopeia.A food is adulterated: First, if any substance has beenmixed with it so as to lower or depreciate or injuriouslyaffect its quality or purity; second, if any inferior substancehas been wholly or in part substituted for it; third, if anyvaluable or necessary ingredients have been abstractedfrom it; fourth, if it is an imitation, or sold under thename of another article; fifth, if it consists wholly or inpart of deceased or decomposed animal or vegetable substance; sixth, if it is colored, coated, polished or powdered,whereby damage or inferiority is concealed, or if by anymeans it is made to appear better or of greater value than2Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. 8 [1900], No. 1, Art. 30https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol8/iss1/30208 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.it is; seventh, if it contains any added substance or ingredients which are poisonous, or injurious, or deleterious tohealth, or if it contains any deleterious substance not anecessary ingredient in its manufacture.Candies are adulterated with chalk, or baryta, to givethem weight; adulterated with flour to give them bulk;and adulterated with analine to give them color, and adulterated with saccharine to give them sweetness.Strained honey is adulterated by dropping into a half-pound glass jar of glucose, a small piece of highly flavoredhoney in the comb, with an occasional fragment of the bodyof the bee. In some instances this might with propriety becalled the adulteratiion of glucose instead of the adulteration of honey.Syrups are adulterated with glucose and colored withanaline colors, soured syrups are neutralized and reboiled,thereby producing compounds that are very deleterious tohealth.Flavoring extracts, such as lemon and vanilla, are as ausual thing adulterated, containing an exceedingly smallamount of the essential reagent, and are colored with coaltar products orcaram'l. In some instances there is absolutely none of the essential reagents in the so-calledextracts.And so on we might mention almost the entire list ofthe grocer's goods and many of the druggist's stock ofgoods.Second. As to the effects on the human system, foodsmay be divided into three classes: First, those that arewholesome; second, those that are questionable; third,those that are harmful.The unsuspecting public has a right to be protectedfrom harmful and questionable foods; the public also aright to be protected in the case of adulterations, whether•or not they are injurious to health.Greed for gold in America is doing what malice in barbarous and semi-barbarous countries is doing, viz. : putting poison even in the foods we drink. The law lends ahelping hand in the case of burglary and piracy, but is3Bates: Pure Food LawsPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1900IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 209slow to declare against the man who robs your food of itsnutritious qualities. The man who steals your purse ispunished by the law; the man who steals your health isprotected by the law; the man who counterfeits yourmoney is imprisoned; the man who counterfeits your foodis not molested in his nefarious practice. As Congressman Cousins has said: "It is about time in this countrywhen it should not be necessary to hold a coroner's inquestor have a chemical analysis before asking a blessing."All the state food laws that have thus far been enactedare of a similar character, and are based on the laws ofMassachusetts or upon the laws of Ohio, which are thesame as those of Massachusetts made more specific. TheNational food law proposed and known as the " BrosiusBill," affects only interstate commerce and the territoriesof the United States. It is similar to the laws of Massachusetts, but has been greatly weakened by the insertionsthat manufacturers have smuggled in.As far as I can ascertain the pure food laws are well inforce in some of the states, while in others, aside from thedairy laws, they are a dead-letter.In New York, and Massachusetts, and Indiana, theenforcement of the food laws has been delegated to thethe State Board of Health, and not to special commissioners whose sole duty is to see that the laws are enforced,and if necessary, prosecute the offenders. The result hasbeen that the State Board of Health in each instance hasbeen exceedingly lax.In Connecticut the Food Commissioner has charge of theenforcement of the laws, the analytical work being doneat the State Agricultural Experiment Station, and theresult has been that the laws have been well enforced.In Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, the laws have beenquite well enforced by a somewhat similar arrangement,but in each instance the battle is fought along one or bothof two lines, viz.: First, the definition and application ofthe words "mixture" or "compounds"; second, provingguilty knowledge on the part of the vendor.144Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. 8 [1900], No. 1, Art. 30https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol8/iss1/30210 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.In regard to the first, the law usually permits the saleof mixtures or compounds, provided they are labeled " mixture " or " compound," but the end of the law is defeatedin some instances. For example, such goods as compoundpancake flour, compound syrups, etc., are perfectly legitimate articles of food. But when it comes to compoundingspices, it is evidently a different matter. The consumermay know, in a sense, what he is getting, but a label thatconfesses the crime, is evading the law in a bold manner.In regard to guilty knowledge on the part of the vendorof adulterated foods it is difficult to convict. It will beclaimed in his behalf that intent is the essence of crime.But if a saloon-keeper unintentionally sells to a minor,still he offends, and may be prosecuted successfully for hisoffense.It will work no hardship in the long run to hold thegrocer responsible for the purity of his goods. It is successfully done both in Michigan and Wisconsin. Thegrocer takes pains to buy his goods from a reliable houseunder written guarantee, then if he is prosecuted he canfall back on the wholesaler, likewise the wholesaler canfall back on the manufacturer.NOTES ON THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF ASTRAGALUS CARYOCARPUS.F. W. FAUROT.While a student at the University of Nebraska thewriter became interested in plant embryology, a subjectwhich has attracted much attention during the past fewyears, especially since the remarkable work of Stras-burger1, Guignard2, and other European botanists. ManyAmerican botanists, however, have since done much workalong embryological and cytological lines, viz.: Chamberlain, Webber, Schaffner, Harper, Coulter, and others.Most of the work that has been done is of a purely technical and botanical character, excepting that done in the5Bates: Pure Food LawsPublished by UNI ScholarWorks, 1900

Pure Food Laws

https://scholarworks.uni.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7134&context=pias

Pure Food Laws

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

University of Northern Iowa