Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-09-20
Dr.. Wiley's Plans for His
Scientific Board
ing House.
NO TRAMPS WANTED
Scheme of u. S. Depart
nent of Chem
iStry.

BY far the best advertised boarding
house in the United States is that which
DIR. II. W. Wiley. chief of the division
of chemistry of the department of ag-
rfculture, will open in the fall under
authority of an act of congress for the
purpose of testing the effect of various
preservatives, coloring substances and
other food admiXtures upon persons in
health. The proposal has been treated
fippantly by SO many of the para
graphers as to convey an altogether
wrong idea of its seriousness and i'm
pOrtance. DIR. Wiley, who has just re-
turned from Europe, gave the Wash
ington correspondent of the New York
Evening Post an interesting account
of the progress of his preparations.
Obviously the boarders are the most
important element in boarding house.
Especially is it so of this one. Accord
ingly tramps. hobos. cranks and all
who are seeking free board for the
boards own sake have been notified
that their services are not desired. DIR.
Wiley Will procure the most intelligent
persons that he can find for his tables,
about six persons each. Young men
in the scientific bureaus of the agricul-
turaI department will be enlisted first
and after them the resident college
students of the city. These tables will
be kept up many months and perhaps
years.
In theory the Wiley plan is not IN
like the great basin at the navy yard
in which models of vessels are tested
with most minute and unfailing &C
curacy to ascertain the exact shape
which utilities to the best advantage
the power that may be applied at va
rious rates of speed and in different
kinds of work. Private shipbuflders
now send their models to Washington
for this test, and sometimes by looping
off Il few inches in one place and add
ing a few in another a great many
horsepower on the engines can be
saved. This is n practical age, and
practical tests seem to be the thing.
Why not try u model table for the set
Element of disputed food questions?
Ever since civilization advanced so
that people had some choice as to what
they should eat the controversy has
been active over the healthfulness of
various articles of everyday diet. 1t
has been said that excellent medical
authority could be found for excluding
every article on the dinner table as a
sure pathway to the grave. Especially
acrimonious becomes the controversy
when, beyond the domain of natural
products, one begins to deal with the
devices of the chemical laboratory for
the preservation of food and its ''adorn-
ment." DIR. Wiley purposes to find out
the relative harmfulneSS of various ar
ticles as q part of the movement to-
ward pure food legislation. BoraX has
become an international question. The
German government has profesSed to
believe that our meats treated with it
are harmful, although its own best
medical authorities take the opposite
view. DIR. Wiley has always thought
that the small quantity of boric acid
used in curing meat was not harmful;
in fact, decidedly less so than would
be the quantity of salt necessary to
take its place. Il believe this" said
DR.. Wiley. 81 do not know 1t. The
object of this table is to test such Il
belief in the most practical way
The necessity of having men whose
observations would be intelligent and
whose power to express with some ac-
curacy their feelings and sensations so
that these could be understood is most
manifest. Each bOarder will keep a
diary and record all sorts of facts con-
corning 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 accord
ance with the Scriptural Injunction,
asking no questions for conscience's
sake. But only Il small part of the in
formation will come from the records
of the men themselves By devices
fully understood in the medical pro-
fession it is possible to tell something
of the thoroughness with which diges-
ton has taken place and to what ex-
tent it has been retarded, if at all, pre-
Sumably 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 water consumed
will be kept as well as of the food it
self. The boarders will have no knowl-
edge of when different things are. be-