The times., 1899-04-05
BEEF WAS TREATED
With CHEMICALS
Dr.. DAILY Stands By His 0rigi-
nal Statement.
Meat Bore Every Evidence of Hav-
ing Been Embalmed.
General Miles Asks That the State
ment of IL. Officers BE Adj
mitted rs Evidence.

Two physicians appeared before the Beef
| Court yesterday and testified that it was
their belief that the beef issued to troops
| during the late war with Spain was treated
with chemicals for purposes of preserva-
ton.
Each of these doctors testified that the
refrigerated beef had the odor OF an en-
balmed human body.
A Government meat inspector testified
that he had once Investigated a charge
that condemned beef had been taken from
the reduction watts and placed on sale.
Those who testified yesterday were DR..
William H. DAILY, of Pittsburg; DIR. Edwin
A. Nicodemus, of Philadelphia; DR.. w. S.
Deyoe. of Chicago. and Lieutenant Dixon,
| of the Tenth Cavalry.
The first witness was DR.. Daily. He tes-
titled that his commission as major and
chief surgeon of volunteers was dated May
2S, 1898, and that within q day or two after
! that date he was assigned to duty on the
staff of General Miles. He served at Tam
pa till two days after the departure of the
Fifth Army Corps. Then he went to Miami
and Jacksonville to inspect camp sites. He
arrived at Guanica, Porto Rico, July 2S,
and came north on the hospital transport
| Panama. arriving at Fortress Monroe Sep
tember TO-
Dr. DAILY said that his attention was di-
| rected first to process beef at Tampa. He
saw a quarter of beef hanging on the Gov
| ernment transport Comal His attention
| was called to it by Colonel Weston, chief
| commissary at Tampa. That officer said:
This beef has been hanging here already
sixty hours and We want TO see how long 1t
Will stand
The witness stated that he asked Colonel
| Weston through what process the beef had
been put and that Colonel Weston replied
by winking at him. He had not heard the
name of DR.. Powell associated with this
beef AS this meat was hanging on a Gov
ernment ship, and as it was shown him
by commissary officer it was a reaspna-
BILE presumption, said the witness, that il
was Government beef Late in August he
was directed by General Miles to take
| charge of the convalescents who were
| TO be sent North on the transport Panama.
On that ship was one ton of refrigerated
| beef cooled by ten tons of ice. There was
complaint against the meat, a board of sur
yey was called, and fifteen hundred pounds
| was thrown overheard. He was suspicious
of this meat and took some soup from a
caldron in the ships galley and bottled it.
On his return to Pittsburg he analyzed this
soup and found that it contained boric and
salicylic acid.
He presented the residuum from this
soup to the Alger Relief Commission.
which Commission turned it over to +. W.
Clark, Chief Chemist of the Geological Sur
yey, who made formal report in which
he stated that he found in the residuum
the chemicals described by Dr. DAILY.
DIR. DAILY was subjected to rigid cross
examination by Colonel Davis, the judge
advocate, but his testimony concerning the
Standardization of beef on the Panama was
| not shaken.
DR.. Edwin A. Nicodemus was called to
the stand. He testified that he served in
| the Governors Troop, Pennsylvania Volun-
tcer Cavalry, as u lieutenant. On the yoy-
age from Newport News TO Porto Rico on
the Manitoba the fresh meat component of
the ration was canned roast beef. Only
two issues of fresh slaughtered beef were
made to his command in Porto Rico and
that was native beef. His command re-
turned to the United States on the trans
port Mississippi. The meat on this ship
was refrigerated beef, taken out of the
Manitoba at Ponce. On the second day out
the men complained that this beef was
not fit to be eaten. He inspected it The
witness said:
THE odor of this meat was heavy, op-
. pressive. sweetish, and unpleasant The ex-
terror was dry and brown and the interior
red. The odor was that OF a dissecting
room. The meat smelled like corpse
that had been embalmed. The odor was
distinctly not that of decomposing animal
tissue. The men who ate the exposed parts
OF the meat suffered from symptoms OF
ptomaine poisoning. The meat had an as
. | tringent taste. | thought at the time
that the beef had been subjected to some
treatment OF chemicals.
This witness condemned the canned roast
beef as being nauseating and unnutri-
tious.
Lieutenant Dixon, of the Tenth Cavalry
who during June and July, 1898 was brig
ade commissary at Lakeland, was called tC
testify as to conversations with Mr. More.
2 house, Armours agent at Tampa He con
E tradicted Lieutenant Gamfer, of the First
Ohio Cavalry. who testified that the beet
he saw at Lakeland appeared TO have beer
vanished. Lieutenant Dixon declared that
the refrigerated beef was of excellent quail
= ity and did not differ in appearance from
I that which he saw daily in the butcher
I shops of the North.
, DIR. W. S. Devoe, of the Department OF
Agriculture. chief meat inspector at Chica-
go. was recalled. When he appeared be-
fore the Court at Chicago he was asked
to tell of an investigation he had made
E into charge that a certain packing house
q | had reclaimed condemned beef from the
a tanks and had put it on the market He
I | avoided an answer to this question by stat
: ing that he had made a formal report OIL
5 this matter to ]. Sterling Morton, then
Secretary of Agriculture. Enquiry was
made at the Department of Agriculture anc
: | a letter was received by the Court set
ting forth that search had been made
for the report in question, but that II
/ could not be found. He was then asked
the same question TO which he demurred a
. | Chicago. He again demurred but was ii-
. rected by the Court to make reply He
said that four years ago Secretary Mortor
, ! directed him to make investigation of tn.
\ charge that Nelson Morris g. Co. had pu
! on the market meat that had been con.
+ demned and tanked He made an investi.
I ! cation, but did not conclude it, being as
; signed 10 duty in another part of tn,
country. He made a report to the Secre
tary of Agriculture, recommending that tn,
investigation be carried further. He hat
I no positive knowledge that the matter wai
! pressed or that any other action was taken
: He stated that he had reason TO think tina
! the reclamation of the bad beef was with
out the conniyance Of the firm of Morris
b e. Co. II was the work of some employe.
t whom he had understood sold the con
demned meat to Chicago butcher an,
! whom he also understood were subsequentl!
dismissed.
The Information was brought forth from
the witness that some slaughtering estab
l. lishments at Chicago are not under Gov
ernment inspection. 1hese establishment
a are Newland & Hoff. d. Levy. and Rudd!
Brothers. These men do not slaughter fo
interstate or export trade. but merely fo
: the local Chicago market. They were sub
= iect TO State and city inspection, however
!: Cattle that were condemned at the stool
= I urda hU