Excerpt from Influence of Food Preservatives and Artificial Colors on Digestion and Health, Vol. 1: Boric Acid and Borax The necessity for an investigation of this kind is found in the very general use of certain chemical compounds for preserving foods and of certain coloring matters for imparting to foods a tint resembling that of nature, which they may have lost, or of producing in food products certain colors which are attractive to the eye of the consumer. The use of preservatives in food products is as old as civilization, and there is no occasion in these investigations for adding to the studies already made of the long-established preservative agents. Moreover, these preservatives are condimental in character and reveal themselves at once by taste or odor to' the consumer. The more important of the common and long-established preservatives are salt, sugar, vinegar, and wood smoke. Alcohol has also been long used as a food preservative, but does not rank in antiquity and in generality of use with those just mentioned. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.