The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-05
The Refrigerated Beef Was Ger
tainly Embalmed.
A BOUQUET OF CESsP0OLS
DR.. Daily Gets Whack at the Dscred-
tied War Commission-Gen. Miles
Offers the Testimony of 147 o.
hcers-Not Yet Accepted.

nished to the army during the late war
He reiterated his former statements
paid his respects to the war commission
and declared that the refrigerator beef
smelled like cadaver after it had been
embalmed. DR.. Nicodemus of Phila-
delphia, who saw service in Porto Rico
corroborated this testimony, comparing
the smell of the beef to the odor about
a dissecting room. The day brought
out a proposition from General Miles
to supply the court the names of a
large number of witness and that he
had in February offered the official re-
ports of lat officers as testimony, but
that the court had not indicated its
acceptance of them
Major Lees remarks in presenting
this matter were as follows:
THE major general commanding the
army on Feb 10, 1899 transmitted to
the secretary of war original official re-
ports of lat officers, representing 26
regiments and some $4,000 troops, call
ed for by circular order from the head
quarters of the army Sept. 20, 1898. On
Feb. 22 1899, the major general COM
handing the army submitted with his
letter to you of that date additional
reports and original communications
voluntarily sent to the headquarters
of the army, arranged as per said let
ter Of Feb. %, 1899.
Il now offer as evidence in this case
the reports Of the lat officers trans
mitted as aforesaid to the secretary
of war and the additional reports of
officers now in your custody. 1t need
not be argued that the officers who
made these reports made them upon
t1ni hrv 11,~ u
official duties and that the same Gre
dence should be given to the statements
made in the above reports as though
their contents had been sworn to. 1t
Is an axiom that the official reports
of an officer of the army impart truth"
Daily on the stand
DIR, w. H. Daily was the first witness
before the beef court of inquiry to-day.
He was medical member of General
Miles staff in Porto Rico, and had pre-
viously testified before the court and
was called to complete his testimony
then begun. After relating incidents of
his service with General Miles he re-
sponded to Major Lee that he had been
made president Of various national
medical societies of the United States
and a member of the foreign societies
in recognition of scientific investiga-
tons by himself and without any ask
ing on his part.
DR.. Days testimony dealt on this &C.
casion, as on his first appearance, es-
pecially with the beef supplied to the
army. He had he said, made sufficient
observations to warrant him in sub
hitting an official report and after that
time he had made an analysis which
had confirmed his suspicious as to the
meat. His first observations had been
made on transport at Tampa before
the sailing Of the expedition to Santi-
ago.
DR.. Daily detailed the particulars of
the trip north on the transport Panama
last September which was in his
charge.
DR.. Daily took occasion to pay his re-
spects to the war commission, before
which he had appeared. He said the COM
mission had given out the impression
that the deterioration of the beef on the
Panama was due to want of ice. This
was contrary to his testimony, and the
truth could easily have been ascertain
ed. AS matter of fact. the Panama
had an excellent refrigerator and it
carried ten tons of ice to one of beef.
He also referred to the criticism in
the war commission of his use of the
expression in his report that the smell
about the beef was like the odor of bo-
racic acid.
"A bouquet OF SesspOOls.
1T is he said "as difficult to say
what smell Is like as for an artist
to paint dying groan If the phrase
adopted the language of the soldiers,
some of whom said 1t smelled like the
devil. while others compared it to a
bouquet of cesspools"
DR.. Daily said he had since made ex-
periments upon beef subject to treat
ment by boracic acid and had found it
gave forth about as foul a smell as
could well be imagined.
Major Lee then read various reports
made by DR.. DAILY concerning official
inspections of the beef at the camps at
Jacksonville, Lexington and Chicka-
manga. All these stated that the meat
used generally looked we'll, but there
was universal complaint of it's smell
ing badly He had found the fresh beef
to be apparently preserved by the in
lection of some chemical which Destroy
ed its natural flavor and which must of
necessity have been injurious to the
health of those eating it. 1t was to his
mind impossible to preserve the meat
without the use of acid. and apparently
the meat had been preserved by the in
lection of chemicals to aid the work of
defective cold storage. In one case he
had found the odor similar to that of a
dead human body, and in another
speaking of the odor he said sit was
unnatural, mawkish, sickly-like that
Of a human cadaver after an under
taker had injected his embalming pre-
sentative"
Beef Was Emba1med.
He was satisfied that the beef had
been chemically prepared-that it had
been embalmed in fact. After his re-
ports had gone in. in order to satisfy
his own mind, he made chemical analy-
sis of the residuum of the beef used in
the campaign and had had distinct evil
dences of the boracic and salicylic acids
He then referred again to the report of
the war commission, in which reference
had been made to the use of these
drugs, the intimation being that a trace
of them would not be injurious. Re-
plying. DR.. DAILY asserted that chemic-
ais were detrimental to health and they
could only be used a the peril of those
taking them.
In cross-examination by Colonel
Davis Dr. DAILY said he had heard moth
ing when he had made his first observa-
ton at Tampa in response to Colonel