The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-03-23

tnIcagO Ills, Mafcn @-.-I ne AleH-
bers of the Government court of inquiry
finished their labors in Chicago today and
left for New York this evening. The
testimony of Governor Theodore RooSe-
welt will there be received. afte" which
the court will proceed to Governors
Island.
The evidence brought forth today was
largely cumulative in its character, con
sisting mainly in criticisms of the canned
beef and refrigerated beef from soldiers
who ate it and watched its effects i'll
Cuba and Porto Rico. David Fleisch-
mann. a bell boy in the Hotel MORRISON
told of a visit TO the stock yards in the
company of an unknown man whose pur-
pose he supposed to be an experiment Ill
| the matter of preserving beef by chemi-
cal treatment.
Fleischmann testified as follows:
'One day in june he said, "a gen
| tleman in room 131 asked me if l
would be at leisure TO go to the stock
| Yards with him. | went out there with
| him and had to carry two boxes, tin or
| galvanized iron boxes. He went out
| to see some man about some meat, he
| told me- We took the boxes and went
| rows of meat. In each of the boxes
| there were four smaller packages, con
| tanning as | recall it. a black or rather
| light gray colored substance. He put
| this into perforated trays made for that
| purpose, set fire to it and placed it under
| the meat. | asked him what that was
| done for and he said it was done as an
| experiment to preserve the meat. Next
| day | was to go back and get the cans.
| | asked him whether il was to kill germs
| or anything like that, and he said no.
| simply to preserve the meat. | put my
| finger on the meat and tasted it and it
| burned the end of my tongue. | called
| attention to the fact that the meat look
/ ed rather larger than when we We're
/ there before. He said that was simply
| an enlargement of the meat from the
| ice. There was a sulphurous smell in
| the car and another odor which | can
not describe. | took the cans back to
| the hotel. | noticed in one end of the
| car there was a card marked Tampa,
| Fla This was at Armour's packing
| house: there was only one car: there
were only about three rows of beef. |
| think it was halves. / asked him who
he was, and if | am not mistaken he
| told me he was a Quartermaster or a
uuartermaster general. or something like
| that
| DIR. II. e. Murd0ck, who was for two
years President of the Auxiliary Medical
Staff in the Chicago Health Department,
and is an analytical chemist, testified that
he had made several examinations of
both canned and refrigerated beef, dating
back several years. Some time in the
latter part of June, 1898. he sail. some
1 oonoaJ Y1aot urac hrourbt to him tn dp-
termine its character. The witness
found that the meat in the can was ap-
parently boiled beef There was in the
can quite quantity Of common salt and
also nitrate of potash called saltpetrs.
These preservatives, said the witness.
must have been in the can before the
boiling was complete, because they had
saturated the fibre of the meat ana hard
ened it. The character of the meat. in
| DIR. Murdock's Judgment, was largely
poor grade. or rather low grade. Two
of the cans contained but very small
| quantity Of muscular tissue, which is
| the nutritious portion of the beef The
examination was continued by the boil
| ing of the meat in Il retOrt to SEQ how
much beef extract could be taken from
| four pounds of it: the amount produced
was so small that it was not perc"p5ible;
| it was not even enough TO be used as a
culture medium in experiments in
bacteriology.
| With reference to the examination of
fresh beef the witness said that 1T three
| different times there were brought 10
| him pieces of what seemed to be ordinary
meats from the markets which evidently
had been kept for some time presumably
| in q refrigerator. Il found salt in very
small quantity" said DIR. Murdock, "and
some of the meat was coated with bOr-
| acic acid. In other specimens | found
| that they had been coated with prepar-
alton of salicylic acid for preserving the
meat | understood this to be refriger-
ated beef; found boracic acid in two
specimens and Salicylic acid in one.
| These experiments were made about the
middle of June. 1S9S.'
Have yon ever found horse flesh put
up in cans and sold on the market here
| in Chicag0!'
Not put up in cans. but | have sam
Piles brought to me purporting 10 be fresh
| beef from the market. and have found
some of these samples to be horse flesh
instead of beef. | had no means of
, knowing whence they came. An inves-
| tigation with that result once led the
Health Department to suppress an estab-
lishment in the outskirts of Chicago
| William J. Griffin, Sergeant. Company
! +, acting Sergeant Major of the Second
| battalion, Second Illinois Volun-
| teers. testified that at Jacksonville,
| the refrigerated beef had to be frequent
ily rejected; it looked good but when cut
/ open it had a peculiar odor, nauseous
stencil. On one occasion a fresh beef
stew was served and Immediately there
after the entire company was taken vio-
lently sick with vomiting and diarrhoea.
For two weeks afterward 81 men ont of