Notes & Asides

Dear Mr. Buckley:

According to the dictionary an ironist is one given to irony. Irving Carrig, however (May 26, p. 573), attempts to write some new definitions of an ironist a) as “one who irons, a female ironer.” Why female? The early literature on laundries, as in Bret Harte (I quote from memory) is rich with anecdotes of male ironers who chased marauders and tormentors out onto the street, wielding a laundry iron as a weapon, b) as one who is physiologically deficient in iron, “and who, as a consequence, is fanatically devoted to the artificial replacement of this substance.” This touches me on a raw nerve, for I first published on iron in 1930 (Biochemical Journal, Vol. 24, p. 1611). Iron cannot be artificially replaced, and, let me add, even the most enthusiastic of natural food mystics cannot represent iron as being an organic element. (However, a local health food store advertises its oranges as being fertilized with “natural zinc and manganese from Texas” . . . perhaps from the Pedernales area.) There are nutritionists who are indeed devoted to emphasizing the iron content of the human diet, usually because of losses of iron in females during their, er, periods. The current boost in recommended iron supplementation, advocated by the FDA, was originated, allegedly, by an advisory committee member whose wife became anemic during a recent pregnancy. But Mr. Nixon does not menstruate and is not pregnant. So why does Mr. Carrig suggest that his “statement was comparable to a comment on a welcoming gift of yeast” by the Chinese? Why yeast, which is a poor source of iron? Is Mr. Carrig thinking of the cytochrome c content of yeast? Cytochrome c contains iron, but this small amount would be totally inadequate to supply the needs of even Mr. Nixon for iron for hemoglobin synthesis. Or ironsulfur proteins in yeast? Again yeast is a poor source of such proteins compared with green plants or anaerobic bacteria.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

Dear Mr. Buckley:

According to the dictionary an ironist is one given to irony. Irving Carrig, however (May 26, p. 573), attempts to write some new definitions of an ironist a) as “one who irons, a female ironer.” Why female? The early literature on laundries, as in Bret Harte (I quote from memory) is rich with anecdotes of male ironers who chased marauders and tormentors out onto the street, wielding a laundry iron as a weapon, b) as one who is physiologically deficient in iron, “and who, as a consequence, is fanatically devoted to the artificial replacement of this substance.” This touches me on a raw nerve, for I first published on iron in 1930 (Biochemical Journal, Vol. 24, p. 1611). Iron cannot be artificially replaced, and, let me add, even the most enthusiastic of natural food mystics cannot represent iron as being an organic element. (However, a local health food store advertises its oranges as being fertilized with “natural zinc and manganese from Texas” . . . perhaps from the Pedernales area.) There are nutritionists who are indeed devoted to emphasizing the iron content of the human diet, usually because of losses of iron in females during their, er, periods. The current boost in recommended iron supplementation, advocated by the FDA, was originated, allegedly, by an advisory committee member whose wife became anemic during a recent pregnancy. But Mr. Nixon does not menstruate and is not pregnant. So why does Mr. Carrig suggest that his “statement was comparable to a comment on a welcoming gift of yeast” by the Chinese? Why yeast, which is a poor source of iron? Is Mr. Carrig thinking of the cytochrome c content of yeast? Cytochrome c contains iron, but this small amount would be totally inadequate to supply the needs of even Mr. Nixon for iron for hemoglobin synthesis. Or ironsulfur proteins in yeast? Again yeast is a poor source of such proteins compared with green plants or anaerobic bacteria.