The Saint Paul globe., 1902-10-30
WILL RISK STOMACHS
TWO DOZEN YOUNG MEN voLUN.
TEER TO EAT ANY FOOD
Government to Conduct Series of Ex-
perments in Washington to Deter
mine Effect of Preservatives, Color
ing Matters and Authorizations in
Food On the Human Body.

CHICAGO, Oct. 29.-Twenty-fo11r
young men have offered themselves at
the altar of their country. Thev have
signified a willingness to eat any and
all kinds of food provided them at the
government expense without asking
any questions and agreeing to abide
by the conSequenceS-first, because
they will obtain food free during the
progress of the experiments, and, Sec
ondly, in behalf of science
one Of the conditions is that they
shall not know what they are eating.
They will be divided into two SQUADS
and each squad will alternate between
the ordinary table and the training
table. They will be piled with all sorts
OF preservatives, coloring matter and
baking powders, and the experiments
Will continue for months. When the
eXperimenters are through they will be
able to give people an immense amount
OF useful information on this subject
and its effects on the human system.
The United States government has
authorized series of experiments on
human beings, which will begin in
Washington Nov. 1, under the direc-
ton of Prof. H. w. Wiley, of the de-
partment of agriculture.
The professor delivered an address
on What the Chemist Can Do to Con-
serve the Public Health" before the
Chicago section of the American Chem
fcal society.
Experiments on Young Men.
I'VE propose to begin in few days."
he said, "a series of experiments on
a number of healthy young men with
a view of determining the effect of pre-
serVatives, coloring matters, adultera-
tions and substitutes in human food
preparations on the human body. The
newspapers have announced that we
could not get any young men to expert
ment on, but the exact opposite is the
truth. We have secured the services
of twenty-four yours men, though we
need only twelve, so that if we kill the
first dozen we shall have a reserve
force of dozen more. They come to
us from a double motive. They are
sincerely interested in the experiments
and as they live on small salaries they
are pleased at the prospect of receiv-
ing elegant board at government ex-
pense. They know exactly what they
will have to submit to and have all
taken a solemn oath to conform to our
rules
If alcohol has slain its thousands,
water has slain it's tens Of thousands"
the professor continued. "The victims
Of fntoXication cannot be compare.,
in point of numbers, with the victims
or germ-laden water, whether drunk
as water or as milk. Typhoid fever
is the great scourge of the human fam
ily."
Prof. Wiley, who is on his way back
to Washington after having delivered
an grafton at Lawrence university, in
Kansas, covered in his remarks last
night the whole field of chemical work
in connection with human life and
health. No science, he said, stood in
such connection with human happiness
as chemistry.
Beginning with pharmacy and the
materia medica, he discoursed on the
discovery and synthesis of new rene
dies, the evils of adulterated medicines,
the study Of the effect of drugs on the
system, government control of the wa
ter supply, the control of smoke and
fumes, the disposal of garbage, the
adulteration and coloring of food, the
evil of preservatives and the discovery
of antitoxins and serums.