The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-01-21
Surgeon Daily Confirms Gen. Niles
Charges.
NEAT HE INSPECTED CONTAINED
sALCyLIC ACID AND BORAX.
Ten Made From Beef Had Been Taken
To His Home and Analyzed--Nit-
ness said Attempt To Preserve Beef

BY Chemicals Was Not a success.
Washington. January 20.-Msjor j. II.
DAILY, chief surgeon with Gen. Miles,
and whose field OF service stretched from
Tampa to Porto Rico, and whose report
concerning the beef furnished the sxpe.
dictionary forces, created sensation
some weeks ago, made his long waited
appearance as witness before the war
investigation commission today.
Surgeon Daly's report was.the strong
est in language of those submitted by
Gen Miles in substantiation of his attack
on beef supplies.
DIR. Daily has been too i'll to appear
here before.
de was accompanied by Gen. Miles's
OF the commissions official stenogra-
pher
On being sworn the witness identified
the report submitted as his own, chang
Ing It's date, however. from September
81 TO October 81. He was willing, he said,
to stand by his report. 1t was wholly
voluntary and was not called out by any
or letter so far az he remembered. He had
heard nothing Of an official calling for
reports. AT Ponce, however, sometime
between August and August ~. he be-
lieyed, he hau communicated TO Gen.
Miles some observations regarding beef
supplies. At Tampa on shipboard, he
had noticed a quarter OF beef hanging
free in the sun ON sbipboard and he be-
came interested In the experiment of
having fresh slaughtered beef placed
| under such moist climatic conditions to
see how long 1t could stand it.
- Observed" he said, that the flies,
| especially the bull flies, did not aft rot 1t;
did not aiight on 1t, or II they did they
got away from 1t very quickly"
He had cut oil piece of that beef at
| Tampa, but IL neither smelled nor tast-
ed naturally. Later he helped the men
corral some horses and subsequently
he had trouble with his stomach, which
ne first attributed TO the activity of corall-
ing. Then he noticed indications of
chemical presence which brought back
recollections of chemical stuff he had
used TO preserve elk In "A hunting expe-
fditon in the Rocky mountains, some
years before. All that day at Tampa and
| the next day he had an unpleasant taste.
| In that previous hunting experience
he had analysed the chemical preserva-
tive and found it to contain borax and
salicyiic acid. These were used internally
on the elk, but he had rubbed IL in the
raw flesh and also injected it.
Questioned AS TO these Ingredients. he
sain borax was not safe. TO be used in
connection with beef, or for ordinary
medical purposes. while the salcylic
acid was most nauseous. loathsome and
disgusting, almost always destructive Of
digestion
| Cr. DAILY said he should say the at
| tempt TO preserve the beef by chemicals
was not success. That had been his ex
perience on the transport Panama, in the
| teef carried by which ship he was
| pretty sure chemicals were involved,
| That beef, he said, was very foul. He
thought the government beef, require
menls of the contractors were very I'M
reasonable. Every body knows" he said,
that beef exposed 10 moisture and
warmth for 81 hours will be very much
| tried.
I lie said most of the beef carried by the
| Panama was refrigerated. They had
secured ton of beef and for this they aS
| first had one and one half tons Of ice.
later increased to II l-9 tons of Ice. The
beef, however, had Il decidedly peculiar
odor. .'At Ponce" he said, II observed
the refrigerated beef taken from the
transports 1t had peculiar odor. l
observed the examination of spoiled beef
on one transport. 1t was done by a
butcher down in the hold. de thrust
his arm in every direction into the putIid
meat trying TO find solid piece. This
meat had the same peculiar odor." be
added that the Panama's beef warranted
his report that its odor was ike that of
"a dead human body injected with preser-
| yatives
ON the Panama, coming over from
Ponce, he had maue some tea or soup
from the refrigerated beef, the same that
had been condemned, had filtered 1t and
sealed It hermetically In can and when
he reached his home at Pittsburg had
analysed i5. From this he got lightish
brown residuum. This, he said, dis
closed the characteristics of borax and
salioylio acid DR. Daley urged that he
| be permi ted to demonstrate the test.
DR.. Connor objected, insisting that he
leave the powder the witness brought
as the residuum OF this beef. with the
| commission, to be examined by govern
inent chemist. Witness pleaded not to
| have the matter taken out OF his hands,
| but compromise was effected by decid-
ing that MIR. DAILY be present with the
oineial chemist and it was arranged to
have Prof. Clarke of the Geological sur
vey here examine the powder this after
noon.
| This arrangement was not carried out
At the afternoon session DIR. DAILY un-
| derwent rather severe cross examina-
tion, especially on the subject OF the date
on which he had reported as to his sus-
4 III ftHhiu W inc Dcci anu why no
had not reported sooner. DIR. DAILY said
ne had never discussed with any officer
the subject of bad beef. Instead OF COM
menting on such matters he had rather
attempted to allay discoptent with the
meat. While at Chickamauga he had
found meats which appeared to have been
treated as indicated in his report. II the
government was supplied with chemical
| ly prepared beef, he was asked, did he
not think the government had been
fraudulently dealt withn DIR. DAILY re-
| piled that in his Judgment when such
beef had been supplied by contractors 1t
had not been with fraudulent intent.
The persors supplying the beef probably
considered the preparation used no more
harmful than salt. He had not arrived
at the conclusions he did until after tests.
Instead of weakening his position each
| test had made him less willing to recant
any statement he had made.
| DIR. Daily was questioned closely in re-
gard to the examination OF an extract of
| beef which he said he had made and
which he said resulted in disclosure of