The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-21
pr. Wiley Under Fire.


 Much interest has been aroused In Washington scientific circles by the attacks made on Dr. Harvey w. Wiley. Chief Chemist of the Department or New York. Dr. Wiley, Dr. Blgelow and others connected with the Depart ment of Agriculture for some time conducted experiments with what Was promptly dubbed by the newspapers, the poison quad" during which cer, tain government emrlOyes were Ted foods supposed to contain preserVa- tiVes or &dulterants deleterlous to t.' health. Reports of these experiments and other matter on the alleged whole sale adT, Iteration of foods have been appearilA extensively in the maga- zines and other periodicals, often over the signature of pr. Wiley, though sometimes over the signature of oth- CTS. These articles presumably nave been paid for by the periodicals ana their merchantable value has been largely increased by the free adVcr- Using given by the daily press to the experiments and incidentally to pr. Wiley. his assistants and to the polsoa squad
 pr. Wiley has already been subject ed to severe editorial criticism for the alleged use in periodicals tor pay oi information secured by eXper|mSntS conducted at the expense of the D'- partment, in advance of the official re ports concerning the same, Whlcn would be accessible to every one. ana because these articles are said to De Illustrated with plates either the prop erty of the government or made from photographs takSn for such artlclcs' when permission for similar photn- graphs has been denied to other writ CTS
 Dr. Edward Gudeman of Chicago, an expert chemist and food expert oi hlgh standing, thought it well to bring ;he I2atter before the chemists snns SlnD 5cat 4I ing of the Club few days ago at which Dr. Wiley and pr. Gudeman were both guests and speakers, ana pr. Wiley as founding scho2i or "yellow chemistry. "I don't believe pr. Wiley believes everything he mas said.' said Dr. Gudeman. as a starter consistent. Some of the circulars be. ing issued from the Department of Agriculture seem to have c9mmGr- cial aspect" Continuing. pr Gud7- man referred tn the iact that pr: Wiley had issued an order that Ill whiskies containing .25 of one per cent of fuscl oil were impure, and then had the Pure Food Congress at St. Louls create the impression that such goods were pure when they contained much more fusel oil than his limit. We all believe in a pure food law continued Dr. Gudcman. impressively. but the tendency in Dr. Wiley is toward vel low journalism. We are creating class of yellow chemistry. Articles are appearing which seem to use his name or tGat of his assistant, and Ill of them are highly sensational We shall soon introduce into our schools a class of sensational chemistry. if this keeps up Dr. Wiley is doing tne best he can to frighten the public.
 Prof. w. J Gles, instru"'or In physiological chemistry at Columbia University, said The "poison squad tests afforded nothing from which q fair deduction could be drawn. and w. NJ. Hough of St. Louis insisted that every one wanted a purc food law. but that there were good objections to Dr. Wiley's biEl and his definitions. Mir. Hough stated that were the definition of whiskey, which pr. Wiley so wig orouslv sought to establish, he legally adopted. if would outlaw aa per cent or the whiskey of the country, He likened the telling of the "boarderS'' at the poison tEble" that they were being fed "poisons' to experiments .n Christian Science.
 Since the complaints of the activity of pr. Wiley in behalf of ''bottled-in-