The use of copper sulphate for imparting a green color to certain vegetables, such as peas, beans, and asparagus, is a relatively modern practice, having been started in France about 1850. Since the natural green of vegetables is in part destroyed or altered by heat, restoration of the color has appealed to the color sense of some consumers. It must be admitted that this aesthetic gratification is fraught with some degree of danger to health. The experiments by Long show that copper is absorbed and retained in certain tissues, and that even small amounts ingested at brief intervals may have a deleterious action. He concludes that the use of copper salts for coloring foods must be considered as highly objectionable. The United States Government now prohibits the importation of foods colored with copper and also the interstate trade in these substances. VARIOUS COLORING SUBSTANCES Copper sulphate is but one of a host of chemical substances applied to various foods for the purpose of altering the color which the foods would otherwise possess. In some cases perhaps it may be the general opinion that by special treatment the attractiveness of a food product is increased, as when dark-colored flour is bleached white with nitrogen peroxide, but in many instances the modification of color is based on preposterously artificial standards. The use of poisonous aniline dyes for staining candies all the colors of the rainbow must be defended, if at all, on aesthetic rather than on sanitary grounds. Some coloring matters in common use, such as the annatto, universally employed in coloring butter, are believed to be without harmful effect, but others are to be viewed with suspicion, and still others, like copper sulphate, are unquestionably dangerous. The whole practice of food coloration at its best involves waste and may entail serious danger to health. Broadly speaking, all modification of the natural color of foodstuffs is based on an idle convention and should be prohibited in the interest of the public welfare. Bleached flour, stained butter, dyed jelly and ice-cream are no whit more desirable as foods than the natural untreated substances; in fact, they are essentially less desirable. If the whole process of food coloration were known to the public, artificially colored foods would not be especially appetizing. Economically the practice is singularly futile. The artificial whitening of flour with the highly poisonous nitrogen peroxide seems hardly worth the extra tax of fifty cents to a dollar a barrel. Such bleaching with a poisonous gas certainly does not improve the nutritive or digestive qualities of flour; it may be insidiously injurious. The solution of the problem of food coloration seems to lie in a policy of educational enlightenment which shall make natural foods appear more desirable than those sold under false colors. Custom, however, buttressed by skilful advertising, offers a difficult barrier to reform in this field.