Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-29
ICE CREAM AND GELATIN
Declared Full Of Filth and Disease.
Breeding Bacilli.
INSPECTOR SUGGESTED
Methods to Enforce the Pure-Food
Law and to Apprehend violators
Discussed at Length.

According to Dr. Harvey w. Wiley.
chief of the bureau Of chemistry of the
Agricultural Department. local gelatin II
full Of filth and local ice cream full OF
| tetanus or lockjaw germs. That is. some
gelatin and some ice cream. Some of the
revelations made by DR.. Wiley when be-
fore the House agriculture committee were
sensational In the extreme. For instance.
he inquired II the committee knew how
gelatin was made, and then answered his
own question.
He declared that 1t Is not only made out
of skin and bones, but Of hides-the very
scrapings of the hides. These hides. he
said, go into the tanners watts. and, though
they smell to heaven, are treated and trim
med and the trimmings are used to make
gelatin. The marine hospital service ac-
tually found tetanus germs in the geatin.
Dirtiest Factories in the World.
The factories are the dirtiest in the world.
There they treat the hides with alkali rub
1t into the hides for shipment and then
they are scraped and trimmed. After that
they put the hides into the tanners watts
and use the residue for gelatin. They make
this gelatin sometimes i'm glue factories.
Indeed. what is not fit for glue is made
into gelatin. In other words what is not
strong enough for glue Is made into gelatin.
In reply to a query as to the purposes the
gelatin is put. DR.. Wiley declared that it Ia
| used in ice cream and candies and also for
capsules in which the public take medi-
cines. He distinctly stated that there ID
no objection to gelatin IL IT Is properly
made. and 1t Is good and wholesome and
that there is plenty of wholesome raw ma
| terial with which to make 1t. 1t is made Of
hoofs, horns and bones. There Is no objec-
ton to making 1t of bones If they are fresh.
Referring to the cause of so many chill
dren being made sick by eating Sunday
school ice cream, DR.. Wiley said: This Ice
cream proposition is the most wonderful
ago, when the schools first opened. these
hoky-poky men were pushing their carts
around the streets and at the noon recess
there was one OF them who came up on the
street across from my office. I sent out
and bought two blocks of this ice cream a
yellow one and green one. There was
not much cream in them. Well. we ex-
amined those two bricks. One of them had
E.OOO,OOO germs per cubic centimeter and
the other 100000 per cubic centimeter.
Now in good Ice cream you will find not
over ten or twenty thousand per cubic
centimeter."
Kind Of Germs in Ice Cream.
In reply to the query as to what kind of
germs were found In this hoky-poky prod
uct, DR.. Wiley said: I'VE found the colon
bacillus, which is allied to the typhoid
bacillus. Indeed when you find the colon
typhoid bacillus along with it. There are
ice cream factories not a thousand miles
from here which, IL you should go into,
you would never eat any more ice cream
the rest of your natural life" The doctor
frankly admitted that he eats ice cream
himself, but that he made it for himself
and the boys of his Office out of pure
cream.
germs per cubic centimeter in good cream
were not enough to kill a person. To this
the doctor promptly replied: oh no! They
are perfectly harmless germs. 1t is only
when you get this terrible infection / have
referred to heretofore that Ice cream does
any harm. The sterilization of milk is a
great mistake If it is spure. because these
natural germs really aid digestion. But
when you get 100000 of them they do
not all come from the milk
An Inspector Needed.
Following these astonishing revelations
DR.. Wiley and the committee discussed the
best method Of enforcing the pure food law.
An inspector was recommended whose BUSH
ness would be to go from factory to fac
tory where they are making food products.
When any state food officials notified him
that they had found food coming from q
certain state that was not all right, DIR.
Wiley declared he would have him go there
and follow 1t up, even to going into an
other state, but the fact would be COM
municated to the inspector of that state.
Il would have them meet there" added
DR.. Wiley, "and collaborate in the matter.
1 would want the inspector from that state
to go, because the suit must be brought
and the trial must be held there. Further,
he would be wanted probably to give EVIL
dence. l would trace the package across
the state line and find where this sample
originated and take the package to the
place. OF course, we might find 1t all
wrong, but otherwise. without this investi-
cation, we could not identify it, Besides
this inspection of factories and tracing Of
packages this inspector, If appointed.
would exercise a general supervision. There
is no question about his being kept busy
all the year when you think of all the vast
interests involved"