Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-08-22
COLD SIORAGE } CLASS
Dr. Wiley's Plan to Investigate
 Chilled Food Diet.
TEST TO CONTINUE NINE MONTHS

Chickens, Beef, Fish, Vegetables and Fruit Subjected to Refrigeration
 VIII Constitute Fare For Squad of Twelve Young Men-Nine-year-OId
 Turkey May Be Served.
 The food experiments that have been in process for the past two years at the department of agriculture will soon pass into another stage of the general inquiry, says the Washington correspondent of the Philadelphia Public Ledger. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, the chief chemist of the department, has concluded his determination of the effect on the human system of boracic conservatives in various foods and has now arranged to take up study of the use of cold storage foods. The experiment. is one that presents possibly more difficulty than those which have preceded it. Twelve young men, most of them college graduates, athletic, healthy and studious, will form the class that is to sit at the hygienic tak:e to be maintained in the chemical laboratory of the department. Each person takes an obligation to
 
 the experiment and not to eat any food but that provided in the expert ment, and not to drink water without reporting tho amount. The agreement also absolves the government from any responsibility for sickness or other evil consequences to follow as a result of the experiment.
 In the tests as to boracic preserva- tives in food the borax was adminis tered in capsules, the quantity being varied and increased to suit the prem ises of the experiment. from day to day. Thus the appetite was not in any way disturbed at the time of taking the food. The amounts of borax were found by chemical analysis to be con- tained sn the foods under test. With foods preserved in cold storage the capsule is out of the question. The appetite will enter as most important factor, governing the amount of food taken into the system and thus in- fluencing the effect on the health.
 As far as possible artificial foods will be eliminated. For instance, but ter is supplied free from coloring mat ter and from salt. Experts examine the milk and cream used, and it must contain no conservatives of any kind. Vegetables are those of the season or those kept in cold storage. Fruits must be those of the season or those preserved without antiseptics. Cold storage beef, chickens, ducks, turkeys, broilers, eggs, fish, oysters, clans, fruit | and vegetables of all kinds will be on the bill of fare.
 These articles will be kept in cold storage plant to be provided at Wash ington, although arrangements have been considered for cold storage of | foods in New York and Philadelphia. 1 Foods from various parts of the coun- 1 try will be tested. Chicago's food in dustries will be especially studied in the course of the test, and some deter minations made as to the character of l cold storage products that have to be kept in transit several days before reaching the consumer.
 I A search will be made for beef and | poultry that have been kept in cold storage for an unprecedented length of time. There is turkey in Washington that has been on ice for nine years, and Dr. Wiley is negotiating for it and will serve it to his class if its pur- l chase does not make too large inroads in his appropriation. The test is going 1 to be a hard one for the subjects" 7" Their first meal will be fine one, but after that they will face mysteries that would daunt the stoutest palate. l During the tests fresh foods will be 1 served, and then the same foods will be put away in cold storage and kept 1 for different periods before serving i again. For instance, quarter of beef will furnish steaks at the begin ming of the month and then be kept until thirty or sixty days or year i later and then tried. Expert chemists will pass on every morsel of food con sumed by tho class. Dr. Geddings of :. the public health service will be in attendance on the class from day to day. Experts in blood examinations ! will be employed, and chemical andy sis will be applied to every phase of effect of the foods used on the systems of the young men. This involves an interminable amount of work which is of the greatest importance in the de termination of results.
 One of the interesting features of the tests will be the requirement from each member of the class that he should de- scribe the taste of the foods taken, and he will be urged to eat heartily, as an unsuspecting consumer of such foods would in the ordinary conditions 1 of life.
 A Japanese Comment.
 The beautiful Baroness Hayashi, the wife of the Japanese ambassador to