The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-23

brought two miles and a half from the
point of issue, which took about half
an hour An Investigation was made
OF the beef which made the company
sick, but with what result witness
could not say.
Or. John G. Burne of Chicago, who
was assistant surgeon of the Second
Illinois volunteers while the regiment
Was at Jacksonville, stated that he had
condemned the refrigeration beef sew
eral times before it left the wagon that
brought it. He had also returned some
OF it to the cars, taking it back in wag-
ons and telling the agent of Swift &
Co. that he could not use it. He HAD
refused the meat seven times in one
month. on account of the pad odor and
bad taste. The men complained bitterly
that they could not eat it.
Colonel Davis: Had you occasion to.
believe or suspect that the Swift re-
frigerated beef had been chemically
treated with a view to its preserva-
tion?''
That had never been suggested to
me, but It occurred to me when ! used
it. The only ground for that belief was
IN its taste and appearance after it
had been removed from the car 1T had
a deadened, peculiar appearance, and I,
wondered whether any chemicals had
beeen used"
BEEF WAS ROTTEN.
First Lieutenant Hedekin of the
Third cavalry testified that the princi-
pal meat ration in Cuba was refrlger-
ated beef. The complaint against it
was that it was rotten.
Colonel Davis asked the witness if he
had any reason to believe or suspect
that chemicals had been used in pre-
serving the refrigerated beef.
1.-The night after / Joined my troop
refrigerator beef appeared on the table
in the form of steak. That was the first
/ had seen. Upon tasting it / remarked
that it had a peculiar taste, which I
had never noticed before in beef. L ate
very heartily of it. That night I had
diarrhoea which developed shortly af-
forwards in dySentery, and / was I'M
able to ascribe the disease to any other
cause"
'What led you to ascribe the pecu-
,iarity TO preserVativeS?'
'fThe fact that the meat was different
from any that 1 had ever tasted and
that it made me sick"
w A Robinson, travelling representa-
tive of The chemical firm of Charles
Pfzer & Co., New York, testified that
he formerly had solicited orders and
sold chemicals to the packing trade.
The witness said 1t was within his
knowledge that his firm sells to pack |
ing house large quantities of boracic |
acid and other acids, but that so far as
he knew they had never been applied to
fresh beef; they were used for export ,
pork.
UNFIT FOR FOOD.
w. Clark Marshall said he had been |
q specialist in meat provisions since !
1SiS, although he had not been in any |
of the establishments in seven or eight |
years.
please explain the nature and |
character of your experience with ref
erence to canned meats, more particu- |
larly canned roast beef, so-called,' said |
Moor Lee.
i have investigated and experiment
ed In the matter since 1S4S. The process
OF canning meat today robs the meat
of all its nutrition, leaving nothing but |
fire, fat and gelatine in the can. l /
consider it entirely unfit for human |
1 I'd. The government chemist de-
scrlbes it as q mass of frsoluble mat
ten In the packing houses tins mass
Ct insoluble matter won u come under
the head of t7nkage and would be used !
as a fertilizer. There are thousands of |
experiments in all colleges, known to
all scientists, to show that animals fed
with it viii starve to death. Canned
COrred beef
Colonel Davis-"I object to any tes-
timony from this witness which does
not relate strictly to the objects of in
quiry.
Major Lei believe that at times the
questions have gone outside the in
Quiry. 1 wish the witness Of course to
keep within bounds.
In reply to Major Lee, the witness
said that he knew where O'Malley's
slaughter house used to be located. He
also knew of a herd of thirty or forty
condemned cattle being driven there
for slaughter. He saw some of these
cattle the next day in d city market.
He knew of the carcasses being after
ward taken to a canning establishment
lie would not give the name OF the con-
Germ unless the firm denied it. The cat
TIE had pleuro- pneumonia This occur
red eighteen months before DR.. Devoe
took charge of the bureau of animal in
Gustry at the stock yards.
How long viii canned roast beef
keep"
If properly canned it will keep for
twenty years.
The witness stated that the present
process robbed the meat of its nutri-
tion and the sterilizing feature of it
generated a gas which tainted the meat
rs fresh beef prior TO or during ship
Elent directly or indirectly treated with
any chemicals?"
"A man would be fool if he did not
treat it chemically under ordinary re-
frigeration, because meat going from
here to London could not be sent there
under the ordinary temperature Of an
ice house without having on its ar
RIVAL d deposit of atmospheric germs,
ard the meat would be unstable in
London"
Witness did not think there was any
harm in so treating beef if it We're
done intelligently.
Eliot ElIlooriZes Miles