The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-03-23
PIT A PREsERVATIVE ON 1T.
,1 nov SAID HE CARRIED CANS
ron A aUARTERMAsTER.


NON Told Him He was Trying an
Exoeriment-A Physician Who
,,,,,d Chemicals in Some Samples
os4he Beef-COurt AdjOurns to New
York.
l,,icago. March 22.-The members of
-. government court of inquiry finished
.he,r labors in Chicago to-day and left
Tor New York this evening.
r,A testimony of Gov. Theodore Roose-
,..lr will there be received, after which
the court will proceed TO Governors ISL
and.
The evidence brought forth to-day was
,,rgel,, cumulative in its character, con-
Getting mainly in criticisms of the canned
bsaf and refrigerated beef from soldiers
ubo ate it and watched it's effects in Cuba
and Porto Rico.
david Fleischman, bell boy in the Ho-
,s Morrison, told of visit to the stock
yards in the company of an unknown man,
whose purpose he supposed to be an ex-
r.riunent in the matter of preserving beef
NV chemical treatment. Fleischman testi-
fed as follows:
'OT6 udy III OohNs tiS 9~N4Ns - oN'-N-
man in room No. 1S1 asked me if 1 would
be at leisure to go to the stock yards
with him I went out there with him,
and had so carry two boxes, tin or gal
v,anized iron boxes He went out to see
some man, about some meat, he told me.
We took the boxes and went to a car
where there were three or four rows of
meat In each of the boxes there were
four smaller packages, containing, as |
recall it, a black or rather light gray
colored substance. He put this into per-
forated trays made for that purpose, set
fire to it and placed it under the meat.
was Done as an Experiment.
81 asked him what that was done for,
and he said it was done as an experiment
to preserve the meat. Next day l was to
20 back and get the cans. asked him
whether it was to kill germs or anything
Pike that, and he said no, simply to pre-
serve the meat. l put my finger on the
meat and tasted it and it burned the end
of my tongue. I called attention to the
fact that the meat looked rather larger
than when we were there before. He said
that was simply an enlargement of the
meat from the ice. There was sulphur
Gus smell in the car, and another odor
which cannot describe. I took the cans
back 10 the hotel. 1 noticed in one end
of the car there was a card marked, Tam
pa, Fla
This was at Armour's packing house
There was only one car. There were only
about three rows of beef. 1 think the
beef was in halves. 1 asked him who he
was. and if I am not mistaken he told
ME he was quartermaster, or a quarter
master general, or something like that"
MurdOck Found Chemicals,
DR.. E. E. Murdock who was for two
re 49, 10, -
staff in the Chicago health department,
ana who is an analytical chemist, testi-
fed that he made several examinations
of both canned and refrigerated beef, dat
ing back several years. Some time in the
latter part of June, 1898, he said, some
canned meat was brought to him to de-
termine its character. The witness found |
that the meat in the can was apparently
ooled beef. There was in the can quite
quantity of common salt and also nitrate
ol potash, called salpetre. These preser-
valves, said the witness, must have been
III the can before the boiling was complete
because II had saturated the fibre of the
meat and hardened it. The character of
the meat, in Dr. Murdock's Judgment was
largely poor grade, or rather a low grade
Two OF the cans contained but a verv
tmdlI quantity of muscular tissue. which
IL lhe nutritious portion of the beef Tho
tAdHllhatlon was continued by the bOiI
ns Oh the meat in a retort to see how
nuch beef extract could be taken from
Iout pounds of it and the amount pro-
"uced was so small that il was not nar
cepupe; 1t was not even enough 70 he
used as culture medium in evne,;n,a,,t1
In bacteriologv. eNlei i'lehts
"u reference to the examination Of
5,es sh "eeI, the witness said that al three
inherent times there were brought to bir,o
tees OF what seemed to be ordinary meat
I'm the markets which evidently had
Deen kept for some time, presumabIv in a
refrigerator LII d
s. FOUND salt in very small quantity ,,
eaiu Dr' Murdoch, and some of the meat
vas coated with boracc acid Tn other
SPe0iihehs found that they had-heen coat
n "i'n preparation of salicylic acid for
seiYihs the meat. understand this
9e refrigerated beef found boracic
49, 49, II, IL, Two specimens and salcylic acid in
the ra l5isSe experiments were made about
'ie inladie of June, 1898"
Horse Flesh Sold for Reef
rave you ever found horsh flesh mt
Chicago?" maj net mere III
sar mGt put up in cans, but I have had
0'ApeS Drought to me purportine IN he
in beef from the market and have
az some of these samples to be horse
isH instead of beef. l had no means of
Ano"ing whence they came. An invesfI-
S9a1ioh with that result once led the health
in 'Pditinent to suppress an establishment
III tne outskirts of Chicago" y.
Imam WliIlam D. Griffin. sergeant Company F.
lung sergeant major of the Second Bat
anon Second Illinois Volunteers tee-
uled that at Jacksonville, the refrig
t'ated beef had 10 be frequently re-
ICED 1t looked good, but when cut omen
OI Hau peculiar ordor, nauseous stencil.
~ one occasion a fresh beef stew was
lived and Immediately thereafter
wy. entire company was taken
6 Sio!eaty sick with vomiting and
er-,l 'neoea For two weeks aft
elMard thirty-seven men out of The
TTU,inpany was the maximum fit for duty
I'm, w INN SIX weeks three men died, and al
ta ioush the records showed they died from
eetr, witness said he knew that the sick
"ess from this meat was what killed them
He Rejected the Meat.
M. IT John G. G. Burne of Chicago. who
"as assistant surgeon of the second mi