The Public Health

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 30, 1879

The Public Health

Mr. Angell, in his address upon “Public Health Associations,” has made some very interesting comparative statements, and called attention renewedly to a subject which has at different times occupied the mind of the public, with varied expression of opinions. In the course of his remarks he said, substantially, that in France no medicine could be sold that had not been approved by a board of the best chemists of Paris, and no physician could practice there who had not been approved by a board of the best Paris physicians. Deadly poisons could only be sold by persons of good character, and every precaution is taken in that country to prevent the sale of poisonous, dangerous, or adulterated articles, and to protect public health. In the United States, on the contrary, the country of freedom, millions of dollars’ worth of quack medicines, which no physician would prescribe, are sold; the most dangerous poisons can be bought at hundreds of places in our cities without restriction, and in Boston alone more than three hundred ignorant persons are practicing medicine.

An eminent chemist of Massachusetts testifies that almost every class of articles for food sold in this country is adulterated, and many of the mixtures are extremely poisonous. Cayenne pepper is adulterated with red lead; mustard with chromate of lead; vinegar with sulphuric acid, arsenic, and corrosive sublimate. Half the vinegar sold is said to be rank poison. Of twelve packages of pickles analyzed, copper was found in ten. Of another lot of sixteen packages, copper was found in every one, though no two were put up by the same wholesale house. Sirups, flavoring oils, jellies, and preserved fruits contain poisons. Tea and coffee are largely adulterated; cocoa and chocolate, with minerals. White stone is ground up in New England mills for adulterating soda, sugar, and flour. Thousands of tons of it have been ground for the purpose in one Massachusetts town. Flour is mixed with plaster of Paris, bone dust, clay, sand, chalk, etc.; candy, with terra alba. A Boston chemist found 75 per cent of terra alba in one sample of cooking cream of tartar. Milk is mixed with water taken from barn-yard wells, and thousands of gallons of compound are sold as milk that do not contain one drop of the genuine article. Diseased meats, eggs, poultry, and fish are sold in the markets. Butter is manufactured in enormous quantities from animal fats, often obtained from diseased animals, and even this is adulterated. In 1878 there were made and sold in the United States of this kind of butter upwards of ninety million pounds, and 40,000,000 pounds of cheese were made from the same material.

Nothing is being done to stop these adulterations. In San Francisco tea is made from exhausted tea leaves colored with Prussian blue; coffee, of burnt flour flavored with essence of coffee; bread, of potatoes and alum. Of wines and liquors there is no end to the variety of adulterations. Whisky contains creosote, salts of copper, alum, etc. In a cask of “pure” sherry wine purchased of a Boston firm for sick patients, not a drop of the juice of the grape was found upon analysis. Wines and liquors are manufactured here, shipped to Europe, and then “imported” into this country. California wines are made in Boston cellars. Forty gallons of compound is changed into brandy, whisky, and other liquors at a cost of ten cents a gallon. A Massachusetts chemist says that of all the wines and liquors sold in eight out of ten places in the State, ninety per cent are adulterated.

Drugs and medicines are fearfully adulterated. A physician orders medicine for a patient dangerously sick, and because the medicine has only a quarter the strength it should have, the patient dies. Tinware contains lead in soluble form. In fabrics for clothing, arsenic, corrosive sublimate and other deadly poisons enter—in ladies dresses, in silks, veils, threads, artificial flowers, gentlemen’s underclothing, socks, gloves, hat linings, boot and shoe linings, paper collars, and other articles. In a green dress eight grains of arsenic were found in each square foot. Wall papers, tickets, lamp shades, cards, etc., contain large quantities of arsenic. Thirty barrels of this substance were found in one New England factory. The proprietor kept away from it, and the operatives could only work two days a week. The amount of arsenic imported into this country during 1875 was 2,327,742 pounds, and each pound contains a fatal dose for 2,800 adult human beings. It is sold in our markets almost as freely as wood and coal.

A retired sugar dealer says that sugar, molasses, and honey are so largely adulterated that he dares not use them, except in small quantities. Kerosene oil is so adulterated that out of twenty samples tested by a Boston chemist eighteen were dangerous. As a consequence, losses by fire have increased in the United States from $35,000,000 in 1868 to nearly $100,000,000 at present annually.

Is there any remedy for these things? The speaker pointed out that laws should be enacted and enforced controlling and governing these matters in all their forms. Boards of health do great service, but they cannot touch this evil. Combinations of capital and political influence paralyze their influence. Public health associations, composed of influential citizens, supported by voluntary contributions, employing officers who cannot be bribed, he thought the only true and available remedy.—Boston Herald.