The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-23

Chicago, March 22.-The members of
the government court of inquiry finish
ed their labors in Chicago today, and
| left for New York this evening. The
| testimony of Governor Roosevelt will
| be taken. after which the court will
proceed to Governors Island. The evil
dence brought forth today was largely
| cumulative in its character, consisting
mainly Of criticisms of canned beef and
refrigerated beef from soldiers who ate
it and watched its effects in Cuba and
! Porto Rico
| David Fleischmann, a bel1-boy in the
| Hotel Morrison, told of a, visit to the
| stockyards in the company Of an un-
known man, whose purpose he suppos-
ed to be an experiment in the matter
| of preserving beef by chemical treat
ment.
| w. c.. Marshall, the provision special
ist whose testimony was expected to
! be sensational, threw no additional
light on the question, his evidence be
| ing principally the expression of the
F.! opinion that canned beef as now put
on the market is totally unfit for hu-
man food.
DIR. Z. Z. Murdoch, who was far two
| years president of the auxiliary medi-
cal staff in the Chicago health DEPART
ment and is an analytical chemist,
stated that he had made several exam
| nations Of both canned and refriger-
| ated beef, dating back several years.
/ In the latter part of June, 1888, he said,
some canned meat was brought to him
| to determine its character He found
| that the meat was apparently boiled
| beef; it probably had been boiled some
| what before it was sealed in the can.
and somewhat after. There was in the
! can quite a quantity of common salt,
and also nitrate of potash, called salt
! petre. These DreServatiYes, said the
| witness, must have been in the can be-
! fore the boiling was complete, because
| they had saturated the fibre of the
meat and hardened it. In his report TO
the gentlemen VINO brought him the
meat the witness stated that this was
! the great objection to canned meat; 1t
| should be cooked without salt, in order
to be nutritious; the seasoning should
be placed in it or on it after the cook
| ing is complete. The character of the
meat, in DR.. Murdock's judgment, was
low grade. Two Of the cans contained
| but a very small quantity of muscular
tissue, which is the nutritious portion
of the beef. The examination was con-
! tinued by the boiling of the meat re-
| tort, to see how much beef extract
could be taken from four pounds OF 1T.
The amount produced was so small it
was not perceptible; it was not enough
| even to be used as culture medium in
! experiments in bacterioIogy.
With reference to the examination of
fresh beef, the witness said that at
three different times there were brought
to him pieces of what seemed to be or
binary meat from the markets, which
| evidently had been kept for some time,
presumably in a refrigerator.
CHEMICALS ON REEF
"I found salt in a very small auan-
tity," said DR.. Murdock, ''and some Of
the meat was coated with bOracic acid.
In other specimens L found that they
had been coated with preparation of
saicylic acid for preserving the meat.
1 gave the opinion that SaliCylic acid
was not only detrimental to digestion,
but produced nausea. BOracic acid,
while in itself not nauseating delays
the process of digestion, and hence is
not a fit preservative for meat used as
d diet. 1 understand this to be refrig-
orator beef; found boracic acid in two
specimens and salicylic acid in one.
These experiments were made about the
middle of June, 1S9S.'
Colonel Davis-Had it any connection
with the goVernment?'
IL don't know that it did,
In connection with your duty as Off
GER of the health department.. WFat
have you found to be the practice
| among the butchers of Chicago as to
| the use of preservatives? ?"
''They don't use Dreservdtives very
| much for certain classes of meat they
| use some Dreservatives. N fresh beef
there is not much need for preserva-
tives. Meat that has been kept for a
time and exposed once or twice be-
comes slightly tainted, and that is fre-
quently removed with bicdrbonate of
/ IL.
| of meat into q. hot solution and then
placing it Immediately back in the re-
! frigerator A hot solution Of boracic
acid, which simply coats the outside,
will remove the taint from meat
Were either of these samples ten
dered you by anyone connected with
a packing hOuse?"
II was not at liberty to in 1uire into
that matter; L was simply consulted
as a scientist on that subject
Have you ever found horsefesh put
! in cans and sold on the market here in
Chicago?"
Not put up in cans; but have had
samples brought to me purporting to
! be fresh beef from the market and
have found some of these samples to
be horsehesh instead of beef 1 had no
| means of knowing whence they came.
| An investigation with that result once
led the health department to suppress
an establishment in the outskirts Of
! Chicago"
MEAT KILLED SOLDIERS.
William J. Griffin, sergeant company
r, acting sergeant major Of the Second
battalion, testified that at Jacksonville,
the refrigerated beef had to be fire.
\ quently rejected; it looked good. but
when cut open it had a peculiar odor, a.
nauseous stencil. On one occasion a
fresh beef stew was served ard imme-
diateIy thereafter the entire company
was taken violently sick with vomiting
| and diarrhoea. For two weeks after
ward three men out of the company
was the maximum left lit for duty.
within six weeks three men died and
| although the records showed they died
from fever, witness said he knew that
fhe sickness from this meat was what
killed them. This meat had to be