Ordered, The secretary shall ask an opinion from the attorneygeneral as to the following points of law:

(a) Does the State pure food law empower the State Board of Health to define a food, a drug or a spirituous liquor?

(b) Do spirituous liquors, under the pure food law, belong to the class of foods or the class of drugs?

(c) In a rule regulating minimum standards, would a definition of a liquor made therein in any way invalidate the rule?

Moved by Dr. Davis, That further consideration of the matter of defining liquors and establishing minimum standards be indefinitely postponed, the Board to meet upon call of the secretary. Carried.

REPORT

OF

The Chemical Department

LABORATORY OF HYGIENE

Year Ending September 30, 1907

H. E. BARNARD, B. Sc.,

Chemist in Charge and State Food and Drug Commissioner.

SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE WORK OF THE CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE LABORATORY OF HYGIENE.

BY H. E. BARNARD, B. Sc.

The health and wealth of citizens are each equally to be safeguarded. The attainment of these ends is the object for which the State Laboratory of Hygiene was established, and this report is an attempt to transfer to paper and to express by words and figures what the department has accomplished during the year ending September 30, 1907. It is impossible to do this either fully or accurately. Recorded lists of analyses made, of prosecutions instigated or of sanitary improvements obtained, but partially express the scope of the work and fail in a great measure to show its most valuable feature-the increased public interest in the character of the food, drug and water supply.

Laboratory work is valuable either as it determines facts or makes practical the application of these facts to the public betterment. It has been the aim of the department both to arrive at existing conditions and to point the way to more satisfactory situations along the lines limited by the scope of its work.

The study of public and private water supplies commenced at the establishment of the laboratories in 1905, has been continued. The results obtained are similar to those already published and establish the fact that a large percentage of the population of the State is depending for its water for drinking and domestic purposes upon polluted supplies. At the present time about 30 per cent. of the population is supplied with a public water service, the character of which is regulated wholly by the company supplying the water. The remainder, living on the farms and in the small communities scattered everywhere over the State, depend upon. private supplies which are almost without exception the dug or driven well. Although the contrary opinion is most frequently held, the public supply is far safer than the individual well. It is true, however, that the corporation or municipality selling water to a householder is more careful of the character of the supply than is the user of water from an isolated well, and, as a result of

this watchfulness, the water drawn from the tap of a service pipe is more wholesome than that dipped from the dug well or raised by the pump from a bored or driven well.

For years to come more than half of the population will be dependent on the private supply, the character of which becomes a subject for thought only when illness calls attention to probable pollution. It is impossible to study the composition of water from more than half a million wells. Occasional help may be afforded the puzzled health officer who is unable to explain enteric epidemics, and assistance given the farmer who has learned to appreciate the value of pure water, but the problem of the isolated householder cannot be solved by the State except in so far as it is possible for the laboratory to teach the necessity for pure water and to give information that will help to obtain it.

The problem of the laboratory control of public supplies is, on the contrary, a comparatively simple one and has already been given some attention. That there is a decided need for work along this line is shown by the fact that of 142 samples from public supplies examined during the year, 55 or 38.7 per cent. were in some way not of normal character and were either receiving sewage or were contaminated by either vegetable or mineral waste products. The present laboratory equipment is insufficient. to admit of the best results along the lines of water chemistry and bacteriology, and more room is urgently needed for the development of this department.

The work of the food and drug laboratories has been greatly increased as a result of the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Law, which took effect March 4, 1907. This law differs but little from the Pure Food and Drug Law enacted in 1899. The principal difference is that the new law does not recognize ignorance or lack of knowledge of the character of the goods supplied the consumer, as a valid excuse for violation of the law. The old law required the State to prove wilful violation, the new law insists that the seller assume all the responsibility for the character of the goods he sells. This provision of the law makes it an effective instrument with which to suppress adulteration and the results of the first eight months' work have shown the law to be effective and salutary in every respect. This law modified in many ways the law under which the laboratory has been working and placed larger funds with which to work in our hands. The results of the analyses of food samples indicates a greatly changed condition of affairs in

the last year. Not only has the percentage of adulteration dropped perceptibly, but it is becoming more and more difficult to find samples that may even be suspected of being impure. This condition is largely attributable to the passage of the Federal Food Law, which has compelled manufacturers to eliminate impure goods from all shipments intended for interstate trade. The manufacturers within this State, although not obliged to conform to ⚫ the Federal law so far as it concerns the goods manufactured and sold within the State, have in every case that has come to our notice made and shipped the same high grade goods to their customers at home that they have sent to the trade outside the state. The new Food and Drug Law differs but little from the Federal law, and manufacturers whose goods are suitable for interstate trade find no difficulty in complying with the Indiana law, both as regards composition and form of label. There is still some doubt among manufacturers as to the proper way in which their goods should be labeled, but we have never found a case where there has been any attempt to disobey or evade the provisions of the State or Federal law. Many old goods are still on hand, both in groceries and drug stores, but these stocks have in most instances been properly labeled, and under such conditions are passed by the food inspectors. The purpose of the Food and Drug Law is, we believe, to secure uniform purity in food and drug products, and to maintain a high grade of excellence in these goods without bringing hardship to either the manufacturer or retailer. It is not our purpose or desire to condemn and destroy food products which have been sold without restraint for years, because they violate in some technical way, either as to labeling or ingredients, the provisions of the new Food and Drug Law. Whenever such goods are so marked that the label indicates what they are, and when it is clear that they have been manufactured before the present law went into effect, their sale will be allowed. All goods manufactured or shipped into the State since the passage of the law, and all goods now being packed, will be required to conform strictly to the law. We believe this ruling is well understood by the food and drug trade, and that all uneasiness and apprehension which may have been felt at the time of the passage of the law, has now passed away. No evidence has come to our notice of any attempt on the part of manufacturers and wholesalers within the State to do other than comply with the letter of the law.

During the year 2,323 samples of food products, collected by the