Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1899-03-23
The Court of Inquiry Hears
Damaging Testimony.
WILL HEAR Gov ROOSEVELT
a Bell Boy Tells OF Strange Things
Ao Saw - Ex-Prcsident chicago
Bonrd "f Health Found Acidn on
Meat ana Horse Flesh on Sale ns
Bcef-Mon I&iiicd by Refrigerated
Article.
(By Telegraph to virginian-Pilot.)

(By Telegraph to virgnian- Pllot)
Chicago, March 22-rhc members Of
the Government Court OF Inquiry fin
ished their labors in Chicago to-day
and left for New York this evening.
The testimony of Governor Theodore
Roosevelt will there be received, after
which the court will proceed to Govern
or's Island
The evidence brought forth to-day
WAS largely cumulative in it's charac-
Ter, consisiing mainly in criticisms of
the canned beef and refrigerated beef
from soldiers who ate /, and watched
lis Effects in Cuba and Porto Rico.
David Fle;schmann. a bell boy in the
Hotel MORRISON, told OF visit to the
stock yards in the company of an I'M
known man, whose purpose he supposed
- be an experiment In the matter of
Preserving beef by chemical treatment
WHAT THE Roy SAW.
Fieischmann testified as follows:
cone day in June" he said. "a gem
;ieman in room ISL asked me If I
would be at leisure to so to the stock
yards With him. l went out there with
him and had to carry two boxes, tin or
galvanized iron boxes. He went out to
see soiGe man about some meat, he
told me. We took the boxes and went
to Il car where there were three or four
rows of meat. In each of the boxes
there were four smaller packages, con-
tanning, as l recall 1t, II black or rather
light gray colored substance. He put
THIS into narfnrn ~
pose. Sc: fire to IL and placed it under
the meat. | askeC him what that was
done for ard he SAID IL was done as an
experiment. 10 preserve the meat. Next
day was TO go back and get the cans
l asked him whether it was to Kill
germs or anything like that, and he
said no. simply to preserve the meat.
l put my finger on the meat and tasted
II. and II burned the end of my tongue
| called attention 10 the fact that the
meat looked rather larger than when
we were there before lie said that
was simply an enlargement OF the meat
from The ice. There was Il sulphurous
smell in the car. and another odor
which | cannot describe. l took the
cans back to the hotel. | noticed i'm
one end of the car there was card
marked: Tampa. Fla" This was at
Armour's packing house; there was
only one car; there were only about
halves l asked him who he was. and
If am not mistaken he told me he was
a Quartcrmaster, or Quartermaster
General. or something like that.
LOW GRADE MEAT.
DR.. Il. f. Murdoch. who was for two
years president of the auxiliary medi-
cal staff in The Chicago Health Depart
ment. and is an analytical chemist. tes-
titled that he had lNA lc several exam
nations OF both CO and refrigerat-
ed beef. dating several years.
Sometime in the a. part of June.
1898. he said som, aimed meat was
brought 10 him TO Getermine it's char
acter. The witness found that the meat
in the can was apparently boiled beef.
There was in the can quite a quantity
of common salt. and also nitrate OF
potash. called salt petrc. These preser-
vatives, said the witness. must have
been in the can before the boiling was
complete, because 1t had saturated the
fibre of the meat and hardened it. The
character OF meat. in Murdock's opinion
was largely poor grade or rather a
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 con-
tinued by the boiling of the meat In
retort 10 see nom much beef extract
could be taken from four pounds of IL.
The amount produced was so small
that IL was not perceptible; it was not
even enough 10 be used as culture me-
dium in experiments in bacteriology.
FOUND ACID ON MEAT.
With reference to the examination of
fresh beer. tho witness said that ut
three different times there were brought
to him pieces of what seemed to he
ordinary meat from the markets. which
evidently had been kept for some time.
presumably in a refrigerator. IT found
salt in very small quantity" said DR..
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