Scientific American Supplement, No. 446, July 19, 1884Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 446, July 19, 1884
Various
Science -- Periodicals
In conclusion: 1. I have never been able to satisfy myself that a can of
ordinary tinned food contains even a useful medicinal dose of such a
true soluble _compound_ of tin as is likely to have any effect on man.
2. As for the metal itself, that is the filings or actual metallic
particles or fragments, one ounce is a common dose as a vermifuge;
harmless even in that quantity to man, and not always so harmful as
could be desired to the parasites for whose disestablishment it is
administered. One ounce might be contained in about four hundredweight
of canned food. 3. If a possibly harmful quantity of a soluble compound,
of tin be placed in a portion of canned food, the latter will be so
nasty and so unlike any ordinary nasty flavor, so "metallic," in fact,
that no sane person will eat it. 4. Respecting the globules of solder
(lead and tin) that are occasionally met with in canned food, I believe
most persons detect them in the mouth and remove them, as they would
shots in game. But if swallowed, they do no harm. Pereira says that
metallic lead is probably inert, and that nearly a quarter of a pound
has been administered to a dog without any obvious effects. He goes on
to say that as it becomes oxidized it occasionally acquires activity,
quoting Paulini's statement that colic was produced in a patient who had
swallowed a leaden bullet. To allay alarm in the minds of those who fear
they might swallow pellets of solder, I may add that Pereira cites
Proust for the assurance that an alloy of tin and lead is less easily
oxidized than pure lead. 5. Unsoundness in meat does not appear to
promote the corrosion or solution of tin. I have kept salmon in cans
till it was putrid, testing it occasionally for tin. No trace of tin was
detected. Nevertheless, food should not be allowed to remain for a few
days, or even hours, in saucepans, metal baking pans, or opened tins or
cans, otherwise it _may_ taste metallic. 6. Unsound food, canned or
uncanned, may, of course, injure health, and where canned food really
has done harm, the harm has in all probability been due to the food and
not to the can. 7. What has been termed idiosyncrasy must also be borne
in mind. I know a man to whom oatmeal is a poison. Some people cannot
eat lobsters, either fresh or tinned. Serious results have followed the
eating of not only oatmeal or shell fish, but salmon and mutton;
_hydrate_ (misreported _nitrate_) of tin being gratuitously suggested as
being contained in the salmon in one case. Possibly there were cases of
idiosyncrasy in the eater, possibly the food was unsound, possibly other
causes altogether led to the results, but certainly, to my mind, the tin
had nothing whatever to do with the matter.
In my opinion, given after well weighing all evidence hitherto
forthcoming, the public have not the faintest cause for alarm respecting
the occurrence of tin, lead, or any other metal in canned foods.--_Phar.
Jour, and Trans., March 8, 1884, p. 719_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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