The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-12-13
WELSH RABBIT MAY
COME |NT0ITS OWN
1t Long Has Been the Victim Of
Late Hours and Super
stition,
vi N I. l C A T ED AT LAST
Secretary Wilson Will Tell How
and Why 1t Should BE
Eaten.

I Washington, d. O., December L.
me department. of Agriculture is ad-
Vancing to the defense of the Welsh
rabbit Having proved by extensive
experiments with the respiration cal
orlmeter--a double walled, heatproot
! room connected with electricali nstru-
nents of wonderful preclsion--that
! raw cheese is easily digcsted, the de-
partment Will begin work In the near
future TO prove that the Welsh rabbit,
the victim of late hours and ancient
superstition, is grossly malgned and
misunderstood
At the conclusion of the experiments
Secretary Wilson will issue bulletin
explaining how to prepare Welsh
RABBIT according to tho official govern
inent formula, with beer or without.
He and his experts are confident the
Information will be received with JOY
by the country.
The Department of Agriculture has
conducted many strange tests with IT'S
poison squad and other volunteer sub
jects, but even It's own experts admit
that there lever has been anything
quite so remarkable or complete as the
cheese and Welsh rabbit experiments.
lhe cheese tests have boen going on
TOR a year, but the experts have KEEP,
ei't StNiet Wtll. II mas lNSl bttbHlt
known now that the official Welsh
volunteer subjects have been boxed ur
and fed on cheese for days at a time
and that one subject lived practically
on bread and cheese for a year and
suffered no Ill effects. Moreover, the
| experts are convinced, although the
actual experiments with cooked cheese
are only about to begin, that what has
been proved true of the raw product
is equally true of the rabbit
The departments official cheese cook
book. experimenting the meat cook
book issued some time ago, VIII con-
tain dozens of recipes for cheese dishes.
But leading chapter in the book Will
be devoted to recipes for making and
the reasons for eating Welsh rabbit.
No such amount OF information con-
corning cheese and It's effects on the
human system could have been col
lected, the experts say. had 1t not been
for the wonderful respiration calori-
meter built at the department, and the
only one of its kind in the world. I'm
til yesterday no newspaper man was
permitted a glimpse of ii. No word of
the nature of the experiments had been
permitted to become known but now
that the tests are nearing compile ton
anu nave DHtIl 50 -Nlll US LtdlIS 2iS~-s'f'' -
in every detail. Secretary Wilson and
his assistants court publicity
The respiration calorimeter is
char within n chamber, a room big
enough to contain a chair, a cot and
small table, inclosed in another room.
with an air space between the walls.
1t is something like the apparatus used
by Professor Atwater in determining
the value of alcohol as food and an
energy producer, but has many new
and wonderful improvements that the
original Atwater apparatus and others
puilt along the same lines did not pos
sess.
So delicate Is this calorimeter that
subject inclosed therein for the pur-
pose of experiment cannot so much as
wiggle his big toe, move his fingers or
fleX muscle without the electrical APP
paratus registering the expenditure of
energy involved in the movement. The
only way scientists have of determin
ing the digestibility of foods is through
the minute gradations in temperature
produced by the process of assimilia-
ton. That is how the experts of the
department have determined that
cheese of all kinds is good for young
and old
While the experts have not conducted
any experiment with Welsh rabbits
as yet. they are confident that if a
subject consumes one while in the APP
paratus there win be no sufficiently vio-
lent demonstration to wreck the deli
cate mechanism. Miss Hunt, the de-
expert cook will prepare the
rabbit and shove ii through small
portfolio in the calormeter. The sub
ject must eat it. The heat-proof room
has a glass door, through which the
px oh
going on within.
While volunteers for the poison
squad, which Dr.. Wiley chief of the
Bureau of Chemistry, conducted some
years ago, were numerous, the caIori- |
meter Is not so popular once in the
chamber the subject cannot move with.
cut violent demonstration on halt a
dozen dials and tubes that hang in
plain sight. If he 50 much as gets up,
steps across the room and sits down
again, wheels turn. hands vibrate, mer-
curry Jumps up and down, spirit ther-
mometers demonstrate with him, bells
ring, and half dozen other automatic
devices perform strange and unaccus-
toned feats
lie lmagines he has done something
wrong. And he has. Every voluntary
subject placed in the calorimeter is in
structed not to make a single unneces-
sary movement
In his annual report Secretary OF
Agriculture Wilson briefly calls atten-
ton to the cheese tests. He says
The respiration culorimeter, which
has been installed in the new depart
nent building and is being used in the
study of the relative ease of digestion
or cheese in comparison with meat,
ana other important questions, has |
many new features which make for
accuracy and ease of operation. 1t has
already been learned that cheese is
iigested very thoroughly by the aver
age individual and that it is not a
common cause OF physiological dis
Lurbance as is often claimed, Such |
4 conclusion is of great Importance, |
since 1t has been the American custom
hitherto to regard cheese as something |
10 be eaten In small quantities for Its
agreeable flavor rather than ma
erial suited to form an integral part |
If meal. TO round out this work |
With cheese tests are now being car
led on having for their object the
accumulation of data regarding its |
preparation for the table in palatable
ways so that the housewife may have
abundant and reliable information"