a

fraud, Glauber's salts and saltpeter being added to make the combination a "foursome." Lured on by the promise that no purging, dieting, or drugging enter into the treatment, the victim finds after giving up his money that enemas, long walks, exercises, no liquids at meals, no white bread, pastry, or potatoes, and the application of the powder twice a day are all prescribed. Such a life might well take off a little flesh, but the quadruple alkaline bath-powder would have nothing to do with the case except to provide something definite to hand over in exchange for the money received.

or quassia. But the pith of the joke is the powder, consisting of soap, magnesium sulphate (plain garden name, epsom salts), and sodium carbonate (familiarly known as washing-soda)-in other words, strongly alkaline powder for cleansing the skin and opening the pores. It could have no more effect in "dissolving fat" and "reducing weight" than if it were applied to the floor. In fact, a really vigorous housecleaning session with a scrubbing-brush would be much more effective as a fleshreducer than spreading this paste on the body. The continuous physicking would produce the results, if any, in this case; washing-soda and epsom salts externally applied will not dissolve fat so that it can be carried off by the liver, as is solemnly affirmed.

So attractive is this idea of simply "dissolving" the fat by external applications that bath-powders are widely sold with no pretense to any other treatment. We are at a loss to understand on what grounds this idea rests, or how the rumor ever started that alkalis could be absorbed through the skin and would dissolve fatty tissues. Long ago the melancholy Dane

The famous Marjorie Hamilton Quadruple Combination, discussed by the American Medical Association long since, and selling for from $15 to $1, according to how long you held off, was a similar type of

exclaimed, "O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt!"-This is all that we can find in song or story bearing on the subject. The desire seems to be the only foundation for the belief. There is not a gleam of scientific sense in the notion. Fat-forming and fat-destruction are deep-seated processes of assimilation and katabolism they cannot be modified by smearing epsom salts and washing-soda on the skin or by putting them in the bath. Long-continued hot baths, by sweating and the general debilitating effect, might reduce weight a little, but the addition of alkalis to the water could not do so. The only real reason for the use of these salts is their cheapness and the ignorance of the buyer. Washing-soda at two pounds for five cents and epsom salts at a cent and a half a pound offer tempting profits when resold at a dollar a pound, or from $15 to $7 "a treatment."

Consider the following:

Sel Amaigrissant Clark's (Thinning-salts). Crystallized sodium carbonate (i. e., purified washing-soda). "Why be burdened with fat when Clark's thinning-salts can help you reduce without special diet?" "Sole manufacturers in this country for the celebrated French thinning-salts." Sold for thirty cents a box! Ten cents would cover the cost of production at the most, and one need not go to France for washing-soda -a corrosive caustic that might dry out and make harsh the surface of the skin, but could not reach adipose tissue.

Every Woman's Flesh-Reducer. Epsom salts, washing-soda, camphor, and aluminum sulphate. The alum and the camphor intensify the drying and drawing effect on the skin, and add a little to the cost. Sells for eighty-nine cents a pound; cost, at a liberal estimate, not more than ten cents, varying with the proportion of the different ingredients.

Louisenbad Reduction-Salt. One dollar for a pound. Plain magnesium sulphate, worth a cent and a half. "These baths do not affect the heart or complexion." This is true; but when it comes to "toning the whole body," we are unable to see it. This is another "remedy for obesity, without the use of drugs, diet, or exercise." The useful lemon is again recommended to assist the bath in dissolving fat, and is the only effective part of the treatment. The statement is made that this salt is obtained by the concentration of bath-salts such as are

contained in the wonderful bath-springs of Europe, and that you are thus "bringing these famous baths to your own tub!" "The solution of the salt is absorbed through the pores of the body, and then by going through the blood, acts upon the superfluous fat." Intelligent epsom salts! And marvelously active pores! Just how much of one's bath is absorbed by the body? The thing is so absurd that it cannot be seriously denied. And again we hear the siren plea, "You need not starve yourself, you need not. . . tire yourself with the exertion and monotony of physical exercises, you need not inconvenience. yourself in any way, only use Louisenbad Reduction-Salt." No, and if you have common sense, you need not pay a dollar for two cents' worth of epsom salts, and work your imagination and patience overtime trying to believe that you are dissolving fatty tissue in a royal European bath!

Nikola. Another package of washingsoda under a fancy name! A trace of salt was all that could be found to justify its claims to being a compound. Not content with "reducing flesh" and "making the skin like velvet," it is announced that it is "recommended by leading physicians here and abroad as a preventive of gout, rheumatism, kidney trouble, and all forms of skin disease." Audacity could go no farther than this. And yet we are assured that "with every post, letters of praise arrive." What an unappreciated haven of refuge the soda-box is, to be sure--a veritable medicine-chest, wasting its wonderful powers on the desert air of the kitchen!

All of this comes under the head of foolishness; no harm done probably, but a fool and his money parted and his fat left intact-though he may be "skinned" a little, literally as well as figuratively. There is a class of obesity-treatments, however, that is dangerous, depending, as they do, on the action of thyroid for their effect. The trained physician approaches this substance with humility and uses it with the greatest caution. greatest caution. Its effects vary widely in different cases. The dosage must be carefully controlled; it does reduce flesh in some special cases, and in others it does not; and it destroys not only fatty tissues, but protein as well, so that the patient's health and diet must be carefully watched. These little details do not worry the man with a cure-all, however. Humility is

not among his kit of tools. He conceals the dangerous drug under a fancy name, such as Marmola, Rengo, or Kellogg's Safe FatReducer, and urges it upon all who would get thin, regardless of the perils in

volved. The carthartic

is ever present, and after

an exposure of the dangers of giving thyroid in this miscellaneous way, it was dropped from the composition of at least one of these preparations (Marmola), which continued, however, to make the same extreme claims-including the loss of

"a pound

a day in some

cases

- for

the simple laxatives, phenolphthalein and cas

cara, which remained.

Don't believe anyone who tells you that you can reduce your weight with no injury to your health without dieting, exercise, and right living. If you want to take lemon juice, get it from the lemon; don't take it, dyed, out of a paper envelope. Rest assured that a manipulated lemon and a dose of physic is all you get for your money in most cases, and if you get more it is apt to be harmful. Don't try to wash away your fat-fat is not soluble in an alkaline bath.

What shall you do, then? Cut down the amounts of starchy foods and sweets; increase the amounts of fruits, especially

acid fruits, and succulent vegetables (lettuce, spinach, string beans, tomatoes,

etc.); eat fowl and fish and lean meats; avoid alcoholic drinks which stimulate the appetite and the digestive apparatus; and drink sparingly even of water. Butter, cream, and other fats are

be

reduced

to a minimum.

Decrease

the total amount of food slowly, keeping up the bulk of food eaten, but decreasing the amount of nutrition by gradually substituting the less concentrated and less nutritious foods for the heavier ones. It is not necessary to starve. Supplement this treatment with exercise cold baths, using laxative abundance (apples, oranges, lemons, figs, prunes), and saline purges cautiously, if necessary. Not so attractive, perhaps,

as doing just as you please and taking something out of a bottle, but much healthier and more satisfying in the end. Our legs are in a fair way to atrophy and drop off if the motor and "rush" and "lack of time" continue to relegate walking to a place among the lost arts. Overeating and under-exercising are the main causes of too much fat. Remove the causes, and keep them removed. If you are not willing to do this, accept the fat and be jolly about it, and enjoy yourself; but don't spoil your digestion and general health, and waste your money, by patronizing advertised obesity-cures. Better alive, fat and jolly, than svelte-and dead!

T

HE women of this country are scoring not only in the domains of domestic science, literature, and politics, but they are rapidly entering the field of science. In chemical literature especially notable papers by women are becoming common. The Bureau of Chemistry has presented a number of tempting fields of investigation to women. Dr. Mary E. Pennington has done nearly all that has ever been accomplished in investigating the scientific foundations of the cold storage of fowls. I have now to chronicle another notable triumph from the same bureau-the discovery and perfection of a process for determining the artificial coloring of teas.

I have long held the opinion that the artificial coloring of foods is essentially fraudulent, intended to conceal inferiority or to deceive the purchaser in some way. Hence my lifelong battle against colored butter, reddened ketchup and preserves, bleached flour, and painted teas. Little by little I have seen my gospel bear fruit. For many years adulterators of the chromatic kind laughed scornfully at this propaganda. One by one their defenses fell, until at last they held but two, Fort Green Tea and Fort Yellow Butter. Now General Read, of the Bureau of Chemistry, has carried Fort Green Tea by storm. Fort Yellow Butter must soon capitulate.

Compelled by public opinion and official activity, the colorers of tea were forced to abandon their most offensive tints, and finally used "just a little" color, which they believed the chemist could not detect. But they forgot that most potent ally of the crucible, the microscope. Take warning, all ye adulterators who deceive yourselves by the false idea that "just a little" will escape detection. You are surrounded by men and women who can count ions and entertain electrons. Dr. Read, with her clever fingers and wonder-working microscope, attacked the "just a little" tea coloring. Her efforts were crowned with success, and her process was adopted by the Treasury Department for the inspection of imported teas.

The method is extremely simple and can be tried by any housekeeper, even one who has no microscope, though a simple magnifying-glass which can be held in the hand is a great help. The method is described by Dr. Read as follows:

The articles needed for testing the tea are sieves, 16 to 24 meshes to the centimeter (0.6 inch), a spatula or case-knife, and a piece of unglazed white paper.

A small amount of tea, about 25 to 50 grams (1 to 2 ounces) is placed in a sieve and shaken over a piece of white paper. If the tea is tightly rolled, it should be slightly crushed, either before putting into the sieve or by rubbing it against the sieve. The dust on the paper is then crushed by dragging over it a spatula or case-knife, pressure being applied by the finger to the end of the spatula. This crushes not only the tea-dust, but any particles of color which are present. The process of dragging the knife across the paper streaks the color, making it more easily seen. A lens with a magnification of 8 to 12 diameters is useful in detecting the smaller streaks. Sunlight is desirable; bright light is essential for this work. . . . A black streak would suggest carbon; the blue may be Prussian blue, indigo, or ultramarine; and a yellow streak suggests turmeric. The carbon can be identified by its glossy appearance, but the chemist must be called in to determine the nature of the other colors. If a blue streak is due to Prussian blue, it will turn brown when a drop of 40 per cent. sodium hydroxid is placed upon it, while indigo or ultramarine will remain unchanged. The ultramarine is discolored by acid, while the indigo remains unchanged when treated with either acid or alkali. If the yellow color is due to turmeric, it will turn bright red when a drop of concentrated sulphuric acid is placed on the streak. Sometimes the facing of teas includes colorless material, such as soapstone and gypsum, and Mr. Mitchell has extended the method to these substances by using a black unglazed paper instead of white. Such a facing will leave a white streak on the black background.

The first pure-food law in the United States related to teas. Sixty years ago Congress passed a law to prevent the importation of adulterated teas. That law has often been amended and made stronger, and it and the pure-food law are guarding the importation of teas today. The Treasury also sent to the Department of Agriculture for its chief tea-inspector. It got

the right kind. In the person of Mr. Mitchell it has a young man of intelligent purpose and, better still, a man with nerve. He