The subject of artificial butter continues to agitate the public mind
and stomach. There are involved a few plain principles which, if
applied, will elucidate the whole matter.
Good glycerine can be made from dogs or horse fat, sugar from rags; sea
water or the most impure lake or river water can be changed to _azua
pura_ by distillation; good suet or tallow can be so treated as to make
a nutritious and harmless article of diet. Now, if old grease can be so
manipulated and modified as to give a pure and edible result, cheaper
than old-fashioned butter, the latter will have to go out of fashion.
In that case, wrong would lie only in selling the article for what it is
not, and not in the fact of its being also injurious to the user. Just
as in many synthetically manufactured wines and cigars, which are not
chemically essentially different from the article they imitate, but are
fraudulent because they are sold as imported or genuine, which they are
not.
If the goods are good, let them be sold for what they really are; and if
the old-fashioned butter is higher priced, let those of us who like pay
the difference for our fastidiousness. The manufacturers of the new
butter should expend their efforts and their money in perfecting their
process, so as to give an innocent and useful food, and in proving that
it is so, instead of opposing the action of the Board of Health. The
verdict of the health authorities should be regarded as final by every
individual of the public, and until the new article is pronounced at
least harmless, no one should think of using or handling it any more
than they would measly pork or spoilt fish.