The record-union., 1899-01-21

H. DAILY, chief surgeon with General
Miles, and whose field service stretched
from Tampa to Porto Rico, and whose
report condemning the beef furnished
the expeditionary forces created a SER
sation some weeks ago, made his long
awaited appearance as a witness before
the War Investigation Commission to-
day
Surgeon Days report was the strong
est in language of those submitted by
General Miles in substantiation Of his
attack on the beef supplies. DR.. Daily
has been too i'll to appear heretofore.
He was accompanied by General Miles
stenographer, despite the presence of
the, commissions official stenographer.
I On being sworn the witness identified
the report submitted as his own chang
Ing its date. however, from September
Slst to October 31st. He was willing,
he said, to stand by his report. 1t was
wholly voluntary, and was not called
out by request or in obedience to any
circular or letter, SO far as he remem-
bered. He had heard nothing of an
official circular calling for reports. AT
Ponce. however, some time between
August 1st and I'd he had communicate
ed to General Miles some observations
regarding beef supplies. On shipboard
at Tampa he had noticed a quarter of
beef hanging free in the sun, and he
became interested in the experiment Of
having fresh slaughtered beef placed
under such moist climatic conditions to
see how long it could stand it.
l observed" he said, that the flies,
especially the bull flies, did not affect
II, did not alight on it, or if they did,
they got away from it very quickly
he had cut off a piece of that beef
at Tampa and cooked it, but it neither
smelled nor tasted naturally. Later he
helped the men corral some horses, and
subsequently he had trouble with his
stomach. which he first attributed to
the activity of corraling Then he no.
tfced indications of chemical presence
that brought back recouections of some
chemical stuff he had used to preserve
elk in hunting expedition in the
Rocky Mountains some years before
All that day at Tampa and the next he
had an unpleasant, taste.
:. In that previous hunting expedition
he had analyzed the chemical preserva-
tive and found it to contain borax and
salicylic acids. These were to be used
externally on the elk, but he had rub
bed it into the raw flesh, and also in
,jected it,
3 Questioned as to these ingredients,
he said borax was not safe to be used
for food, or for ordinary medicinal pur-
poses, while the salicylic acid was most
nauseous, loathsome and disgusting,
almost always destructive of digestion
DR.. DAILY said he should say the at
tempt to preserve the beef by chemicals
was not a success. That had been his
experience on the transport Panama in
the beef carried by which ship he was
pretty sure chemicals were involved"
That beef, he said, was very foul
: Coming over from Ponce, he had
made some tea, or soup, from the re-
frigerated beef, the same that had been
condemned, and had filtered it and
sealed it hermetically in a can, and
when he reached his home at Pittsburg
had analyzed it. From this he got a
1ightish brown residuum. This, he said,
disclosed the characteristics of borax
and salicylic acid.
DR.. DAILY urged that he be permitted
10 demonstrate the test.
DR.. Connor objected, insisting that he
leave the powder the witness brought
as the residuum of this beef with the
commission, be examined by a Gov
ernment chemist.
Witness pleaded not to have the mat
ter taken out of his hands, but a COM
promise was effected by deciding that
DR.. Daily be present when the official
chemist made his analysis, and it was
arranged to have Professor Clarke of
the Geological Survey here examine the
powder.
At the afternoon session DR.. DAILY un-
derwent rather severe cross-examina-
tion.
Death Of an Ex-Governor.
DENVER Dan 2Q-Iofa Cooner