The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-09-12
FREE BOARD HERE
A Place Run by Uncle Sam to Test
the Use of ''Preservatives'
on the System.
The Boarders Must Eat What Is Set
Before Them and Be Care
~ fully Watched.
au. Room IS, Post

July WaIcneu.
From The Journal Bureau. Room IS. Post
Building, Washington. - = =.
Washington, Sept. 12.-By far the best
advertised boarding house in the United
States is that which DR.. H. w. Wiley, |
chief Of the division Of chemistry Of the |
department Of agriculture, will open In
the fall, under authority of an act of
congress, for the purpose Of testing the
effects Of various preservatives, coloring
substances, and other food admixtures
upon persons in health. The proposal has
been treated appantly by many of the
parag pliers as to convey an altogether
wrong idea Of it's seriousness and import
ance. Dr. Wiley, who has just returned
from Europe, gives an interesting account
of the progress Of his preparations.
Obviously the boarders are the most
important element in a boarding house.
Especially is it SO of this one. According
~, tramps, hobos, cranks, and all who are
seeking free board for the boards own
sake, have been notified that their SER
vices were not desired. DR.. Wiley will
procure tho most intelligent persons that
he can find for his tables, two in numbe
and accommodating about SIX persons
each. Young men in the sclentlnc pu-
reaus Of the Agricultural department Will
be enlisted first, and after them the resi-
dent college students of the city. These
tables will be kept up many months and
perhaps years. - ....- 4
In theory, the Wiley plan is not unlike
the great basin at the navy yard In
which models of vessels are tested with
most minute and unfailing accuracy to as
certain the exact shape which utilizes to
the best advantage the power that may
be applied at various rates of speed, and
in different kinds Of work. Private SHIP
builders now send their models to WASH
ington for this test, and sometimes by
looping off few inches in one place and
adding few in another a great many
horsepower on the engines can be saved.
This is practical age and practical tests
seem to be the thing. Why not try
model basin for the settlement Of dis
puted food questions?
Ever since civilization advanced so that
people had some choice as to what they
should eat the controversy has been
fierce over the healthfulness of various
articles of every day diet. It has been
said that excellent medical authority could
be found for excluding every article on the
dinner table as sure pathway TO tne
grave. Especially acrimonious becomes
| the controversy when, beyond the domain
of natural products, one begins to deal
with the devices Of the chemical labora-
tory for the preservation Of food, and Its
adjournment" DR.. Wiley purposes to f1nd
out the relative harmfulness Of various
articles as part Of the movement toward
pure food legislation. Borax has be-
come an international question. The Ger
man government has protested to believe
that our meats treated with 1t are harm
full. although it's own best medical au-
thorities take the opposite view. DIR.
| Wiley has always thought that the small
! quantity Of boracic acid used in curing
meat was not harmful; in fact decidedly
| less so than would be the quantity Of salt
| n a
II believe this" said DR.. Wiley. II
do not know it. The object of this table
| is to test such a belief in the most prac-
| teal way az
The necessity of having men whose OBJ
servations would be intelligent and who
accuracy their feelings and SEN
sations SO that these could be
understood, is most manifest: Each
boarder will keep diary and record all
sorts of facts concerning himself. He will
have to give his word of honor that he
will eat nothing anywhere else, and that
he will eat what is set before him, in ac-
l cordance with the scriptural injunction,
/ asking no questions for conscience sake.
But only a small part Of the information
will come from the records Of the men
themselves. By devices fully understood
l in the medical profession, 1t is possible
to tell something Of the thoroughness with
which digestion has taken place, and to
what extent it has been retarded, if at all
presumably by unnatural influences.
| Every boarder will be weighed upon
rising from bed in the morning. The
clinical thermometer will three times
measure his temperature for record. A
careful account Of the quantity of water
consumed will be kept as well as of the
food itself. The boarders themselves will
have no knowledge of when the different
things are being tried on them; for at
l.,l6 l, T.
diet which is thoroughly pure-a relax
alton diet. The object of this will be
not only to preserve the system from
real injury, but also to tell how far into
a period of normal conditions the effects
of former harmful ones may persist. Al
the table each meal some one will be eat
ing dOctOred food and some pure food
but they will not know which is which
The quantities Of adulterants employed
will nowhere be percept1ble to the senses
although when it comes to coloring mat
ters this rule may not be so easily main
tanned. No attempt will be allowed TO,
| the repetition Of the experience that q
sojourner at a boarding house here last
winter gave Of his breakfast to a fellow.
sufferer, when he said: my piece of meat
might have been good one had not the
chap who treated it with the preservatives
been such bungler; he put on so much
more of the acid than was necessary tina
lost all the flavor of the meat
The persons who will apply the pre-
i servatives for these experimental table:
will be experts, and the quantity en-
ployed in each instance will be measured
to nicely. Detailed effects toward which
the inquiry will be directed will concern
various organs of the body and known
constitutional tendencies toward certain
diseases. Salicylic acid, for example, will
be taken up and put through all the tests
which, in the commercial movement o
food, it is likely to make on thu
physical systems Of American consumers
The tabulated results will throw 1igh
upon the degrees Of danger and of TIN
limits of safety, if any, In the use o
this acid. And so will it be down through
the list of the many inventions which maj
has sought out in the articles of diet. 4.
An attempt will be made to keep tn
boarders at the same weight during thei
entire stay at the table, as any fuctu
alton in this respect may add a confus
ing element to the results. When it
discovered from the daily, Weighing tina
a man is gaining little, his ration wi
be so adjusted in it's fat-producing ele
ments that this tendency will be corrected
and the food will at all times be so gen
orally wholesome and appettzing that n
one in ordinary health need expect t
lose weight. j.
Independent of these investiga tions tn
prospects Of pure food legislation hav
been materially improved by a new ligh