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139
sulphurous acid, benzoic acid, salicylic acid, and formaldehyde when
added to food exert a toxic action upon microbes, either destroying
them or else paralysing their activities.
Were this the whole story we should have useful and efficient
preservatives for use in foods, but it is unfortunate that most of the
chemicals that serve as food preservatives also have an undesirable
effect upon health. Many of them are definitely poisonous in large
doses; and it is safe to say that when taken in small amounts, day after
day, in one food and another, they would have an increasingly deleterious
effect upon the health.
Chemical preservatives function by putting a stop to the decomposition
of food, which is a fermentation of the same kind as the digestion
of food. It is therefore apparent that chemical preservatives must
retard digestion and cause digestive inefficiency and diseases of the
alimentary canal and of the whole body. Further, preservatives are
absorbed by the body more quickly than the kidneys can excrete them,
the result being that they slowly accumulate in the body, throw a
disproportionate strain on the kidneys and excretory organs, and
finally cause illness which may or may not be definitely attributable to
the constant taking of preservatives in all kinds of foods.
It is often argued that chemical preservatives are used in foods to
so small an extent that no harm could result. But what of the total
amount of preservative taken into the body during the course of the
day? Each food eaten would contribute its little quantity of
preservative to that already taken into the body, and the total daily
dose might easily exceed the limit of safety.
Of course, could it be shown that chemical preservatives had to be
used in foods and that the only alternative was the impossibility of
providing urban communities with perishable foods, then these agents
might be tolerated, even though harmful. But it cannot even be shown
that such a necessity exists.
In 1900-1 a Departmental Committee considered the question of the
use of preservatives in foods, particularly milk and cream. Evidence
was given by experts to the effect that without the use of boric acid
in milk it would be impossible to supply London with this food in
a fresh condition. The milk would inevitably turn sour before it could
be delivered to the consumer. In spite of this evidence, regulations