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<td><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=+1>Human Experiments Prove
Food Preservatives Harmful to Health</font></font></b></td>
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<td VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="132"><font color="#FF0000">FDA History 02</font>
<br><a href="index.html">Home</a></td>
<td WIDTH="18"></td>
<td VALIGN=TOP><font face="Arial,Helvetica">HISTORY OF A CRIME AGAINST
THE FOOD LAW</font>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">CHAPTER II: THE POISON SQUAD</font></b>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><b>by Harvey W. Wiley, M.D.</b>, the very
first commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), then known
as the “US Bureau of Chemistry.”</font><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"></font></i>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><i>Vulnuratus, non victus.</i>--Proverb</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">PROLOGUE</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Confucius says:</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> "The commander
of the forces of a large state may be carried off, but the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> will of even a common man can not
be taken from him." </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> In the foregoing pages attention
was called to the experiments making on </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">healthy young men to determine the influence
of preservatives and coloring </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">matters on health and digestion. The general
method of conducting these </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">investigations was discussed. Altogether
nearly five years were devoted to these </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">experimental determinations, beginning
in 1902 and lasting until 1907.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> The total number of substances
studied was seven, namely, boric acid and </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">borax, salicylic acid and salicylates,
benzoic acid and benzoates, sulphur </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">dioxide and sulphites, formaldehyde, sulphate
of copper, and saltpeter.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Reports of these investigations
were published, with the exception of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">sulphate of copper and saltpeter, which
were denied publication. In 1908 further </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">investigations of this kind were allotted
to the Remsen Board whose activities </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">will be described in the following pages.
The Bureau of Chemistry was </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">"grievously wounded but not conquerered"
by this transfer of its activities.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">ANOTHER THREATENING STORM</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Anyone who has observed the
occurrence of tornados, cyclones, and thunder </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">storms, especially in the spring, has
noticed their tendency to occur in groups. </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">This is especially true of any particular
locality and generally of those parts </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">of our country in which these visitations,
often destructive to life and </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">property, are common. The storms which
threatened the integrity of the food law </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">were of this kind. They were different,
however, from the caprices of the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">weather in the time of the year they occurred.
The most threatening of them </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">arose, not in the spring, but in the winter
of 1907. The transfer of authority </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">to execute the law from the Bureau of
Chemistry to the Board of Food and Drug </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Inspection, and from that Board to the
Solicitor, was a very good introduction </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">to what occurred soon after January 1st,
1907. Even after the Bureau of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Chemistry was deprived of its power of
autonomy, it still retained intact its </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">function of judging what was a threat
to health.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">WISE FORESIGHT</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Prior to the enactment of
the food and drugs law it was evident from the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">increase in popular interest in this matter
that the enlistment of organized </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">bodies of men and women interested in
securing this legislation would sooner or </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">later become effective. It was considered
the part of wisdom to prepare for this </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">much wished-for consummation. Numerous
attempts had been made before the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Congress of the United States to change
the wording of the proposed bill in such </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">a way as to eliminate the Bureau of Chemistry
as the active executive </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">organization of the law when passed. All
of these attempts had been almost </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">unanimously negatived by the Congress
as often as they were offered. It seemed, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">therefore, quite certain that when the
law finally was secured the Bureau of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Chemistry would be retained as its executive
agent. As early as 1902 authority </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">was obtained from Congress to carry on
feeding experiments on healthy young men. </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The language of the law follows:</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> "To enable the
Secretary of Agriculture to investigate the character of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> food preservatives, coloring matters,
and other substances added to foods, to </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> determine their relation to digestion
and to health, and to establish the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> principles which should guide their
use." </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> The object was to see if
the preservatives and coloring matters added to </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">foods would have any effect upon the digestion
and health of these young men. </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Young men as a rule are more resistant
to effects of this kind than children or </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">older persons. They represent the maximum
of resistance to deleterious foods. </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The deduction from this theory is that
if the young men thus selected showed </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">signs of injury other citizens of the
country less resistant would be more </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">seriously injured. Having received authority
from Congress to proceed in this </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">matter, a small kitchen and dining room
were provided in the basement of the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Bureau and a call issued for volunteers
to join this experimental class. We </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">asked chiefly employees of the Bureau.
We had no difficulty in securing twelve </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">healthy young men who volunteered their
services and took an oath to obey all </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">rules and regulations which should be
prescribed for the experimental dining </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">table. Their term of enlistment was made
for one year. Up to this time no such </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">extensive experiment on human beings had
been planned anywhere in the world. It </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">was not necessary to ask any publicity
to this matter. It was a problem which </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">interested not only newspaper reporters
and editors, but the public at large. </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">One reporter who was most constant in
his attendance, and this was the beginning </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">of his reportorial work, had the happy
faculty of presenting the progress of the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">experiment in terms which appealed to
the public imagination. He early </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">designated this band of devoted young
men as "The Poison Squad." There was </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">rarely a day in which he did not visit
the experimental table and write some </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">interesting item in regard thereto. This
cub reporter is now the celebrated </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">author of the "Post-Scripts" in the Washington
Post, George Rothwell Brown.</font>
<br>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The Dining Room of "The Poison Squad"</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">LENGTH AND PURPOSE OF THE EXPERIMENT</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> For five years these experiments
continued and investigations of an extensive </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">character were carried on with the preservatives
which were in most common use. </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The chemical and physiological data accumulated
were vast in extent and </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">presented great difficulties in interpretation.
Following the rule adopted by </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">the Bureau, every doubtful problem was
resolved in favor of the American </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">consumer. This appeared the only safe
ethical ground to occupy. Decisions </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">against the manufacturers who used these
bodies could be reviewed in the courts </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">when the food law became established,
whereas if these doubtful problems had </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">been resolved in favor of the manufacturers
the consumer would have had no </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">redress. Without going into further detail
in regard to these experiments it may </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">be said that one of the common colors
and all the common preservatives used in </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">foods were banned from use by a unanimous
verdict against them.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">DATA PUBLISHED</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> The greater part of these
data was published as parts of Bulletin 84, Bureau </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">of Chemistry. They comprise: Part I--Boric
Acid and Borax; Part II--Salicylic </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Acid and Salicylates; Part III--Sulphurous
Acid and Sulphites; Part IV-Benzoic </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Acid and Benzoates; Part V--Formaldehyde;
Part VI--Sulphate of Copper; Part </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">VII--Saltpeter.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> When the data relating to
benzoic acid were submitted, the Remsen Board had </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">already been appointed. The Secretary,
about to depart on vacation, sent for </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">George W. Hill, Editor of the Department,
and said:</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> "Publish what
you like during my absence except that the bulletin on </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> benzoic acid is not to go to the
printer." </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Mr. Hill misunderstood his
instructions. He sent the benzoate bulletin to the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">public printer with instructions to hurry
it through. When the Secretary </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">returned the printing was finished. A
reprint of it was promptly denied. The </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">total number of pages in the parts of
Bulletin 84 which have been published is </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">1500.</font>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">DATA REFUSED PUBLICATION</font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Vigorous protests from
those engaged in adulterating and misbranding foods </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">were made to the Secretary of Agriculture
against any further publicity in this </font></b>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><b>direction. As a result of these protests
he refused publication</b> of Parts VI and </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">VII of Bulletin 84. Part VI contained
a study of the effects on health and </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">digestion of sulphate of copper added
to our foods. The conclusions drawn by the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Bureau were adverse to its use. The Remsen
Board subsequently made a study of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">sulphate of copper and reached a like
decision. The ban on copper was based on </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">the work of the Remson Board and not on
that of the Bureau, which preceded it by </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">three years. During this interval the
use of this deleterious product was </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">unrestricted.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> The seventh part treated
of <b>the use of saltpeter (sodium nitrite), particularly in meats. </b></font>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Owing to the well-known results of
the depressing effects of saltpeter on the </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">gonads, and for other reasons, the
Bureau refused to approve the use of this </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">coloring agent in cured meats. These
two bulletins still repose in the morgue of </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">the Department of Agriculture. They
are not, however, deprived of companionship. </font></b>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">In the testimony of the Secretary of Agriculture
before the committee on </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">expenditures in the Department of Agriculture
(the Moss Committee), it is found </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">that <b>the following additional manuscripts
prepared by the Bureau of Chemistry </b></font>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">were refused publication, namely, Experiments
Looking to Substitutes for Sulphur </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Dioxides in Drying Fruits, by W. D.
Bigelow; Corn Sirup as a Synonym for </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Glucose, offered for publication in
1907; Sanitary Conditions of Canneries, </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Based on Results of Inspection, by
A. W . Bitting, offered for publication in </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">1908; Reprint of Part IV of Benzoic
Acid and Benzoates, asked for in 1909; </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Medicated Soft Drinks, by L. F. Kebler,
offered in 1909; Drug Legislation in the </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">United States, by C. H. Greathouse,
offered in 1909; Food Legislation to June </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">30, 1909, offered in 1910; The Estimation
of Glycerine in Meat Preparations, by </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">C. F. Cook, offered in March, 1910;
Technical Drug Studies, by L. F. Kebler, </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">offered in 1910; Experiments on the
Spoilage of Tomato Ketchup, by A. W. </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Bitting, offered in 1911; the Influence
of Environment on the Sugar Content of </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Cantaloupes, by M. N. Straugh and C.
G. Church, offered in May, 1911; A </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Bacteriological Study of Eggs in the
Shell and of Frozen and Desiccated Eggs, by </font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">G. W. Stiles, May, 1911; The Arsenic
Content of Shellac, offered June, 1911.</font></b>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> All of these publications
are in the morgue. They were objected to by parties </font></b>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><b>using preservatives and coloring matters
</b>and
articles adulterated with arsenic, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">and these protests against publication
were approved and put in force by the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Secretary of Agriculture. In other words,
all the principles which animated the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Inquisition were used by the Department
of Agriculture to prevent any further </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">dissemination of the studies and conclusions
of the Bureau in regard to the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">wholesomeness of our foods. <b>The whole
power of the Department of Agriculture was </b></font>
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica">enlisted in the service of adulteration
which tended to destroy the health of </font></b>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><b>the American consumer. </b>On the appointment
of the Remsen Board further </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">investigations by the Bureau were ordered
to be suspended.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Further information regarding
the activities of the Poison Squad were </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">presented to the Committee of Interstate
and Foreign Commerce during the final </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">hearings on the Food and Drug Legislation.
This information has the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">distinguishing tone of question and answer
which adds much to its interest and </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">value. Quotations from those hearings
follow:</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">THE BORAX INVESTIGATION</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">AND FOREIGN COMMERCE</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Now, I want to
introduce the borax bulletin in evidence; not to </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">have it copied, but simply to have it
as an exhibit, because all of you have </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">copies in your desks. That will answer
the question which was asked me yesterday </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">about the kind of work done by these young
men. You gentlemen need only to </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">glance through this book of 477 pages
to see the amount of labor that has been </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">put upon this investigation.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: When did you
begin your investigation of boric acid?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: In the autumn
of 1902.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: How long were
you experimenting on that?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: We were from the
1st of October to the 1st of the following July.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: About nine
months?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Yes, sir.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: How soon after
that did you make a report?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: On the 25th of
June, 1904; just about a year after the close of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">the investigation.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: You did not
publish it in 1903?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: We published a
synopsis--a preliminary report--in 1903.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: You said yesterday
that you had not had time, as I remember it, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">or had not been able--I don't remember
just exactly how you answered it--to </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">report your investigation of benzoic acid,
which had only occupied three months </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">and which was completed in the fall, as
I remember it, of 1902.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: On benzoic acid?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: Yes; benzoic.
acid.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: The benzoic-acid
investigation was not begun until the spring of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">1904, and was completed before November,
1904.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: Are you sure
about that? As I took it down yesterday in a note, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">it was begun in the fall of 1902.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Then you misunderstood
me; it was not. I was referring to the time </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">I commenced the first investigation.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: Then I misunderstood
you. Who assisted you in making those </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">investigations on borax and benzoic acid?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: About twenty or
twenty-five men besides the subjects.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: Were any of
them of national reputation as scientists?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Dr. Bigelow, who
is here, is a man of good reputation. He is the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">one who collaborated with me in, particular.
The others are chemists in fair </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">standing, but they are not men of great
reputation in a personal way.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: Connected with
the Department?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Connected with
the Department of Agriculture here; yes, sir. I</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">will explain the method of investigation
briefly, because I know you gentlemen </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">do not care to read this voluminous document.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> The young men were selected
mostly from the Department of Agriculture--I </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">believe the first were all from the Department
of Agriculture. They were young </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">men who had passed the civil-service examinations,
and therefore came to us with </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">a good character, as is usual in such
cases. These young men were volunteers. We </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">explained to them fully the character
of the work that we proposed to do, not </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">particularly stating what we were going
to give them, or how, but what our </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">general purpose was, and that was to place
in good wholesome foods certain </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">quantities, which we were to select ourselves,
of the ordinary preservatives and </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">coloring matters used in foods, and to
feed them on these foods with such </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">materials in them.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: Exclusively
with those materials?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Oh, no. I will
explain, and you will understand how we did it. </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">These men signed a pledge in which they
agreed on their honor to carry out all </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">the necessary regulations. They signed
a pledge to eat nothing or drink nothing </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">excepting what we gave them at the table.
They signed a pledge to pursue their </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">ordinary vocations without any excesses
and to take their ordinary hours of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">sleep. They agreed that they would collect
and present to us every particle of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">their secreta, so that none of it should
be lost, and to follow out the rules </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">and regulations necessary to carry out
the conduct of the work.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. ESCH: Did you require
any physical examination?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Yes, sir; we had
a surgeon detailed from the Public Health </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Service, who examined all of these men
physically and saw that they had no </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">disease, and that they had had no disease
within a year, or any sickness of any </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">kind.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: They were allowed
to live at their homes?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Yes, sir.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: How did you
collect their perspiration?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Perspiration was
not collected excepting in one case. We collected </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">perspiration in one case to determine
how much borax was exuded through the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">skin, but in no other.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. BARTLETT: You had a release
if they died?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Yes, sir; from
any injury that they might receive.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> That was their preliminary
work. The first thing which we did was to </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">ascertain, by their own choice largely,
the character of good wholesome foods to </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">be used, absolutely free of adulterants,
a natural diet which would keep their </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">bodies in a state of equilibrium so that,
neither the question of added weight </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">or of losing weight--that is to say, in
a fore period, which was a period of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">about ten days, the body was weighed every
day, the amount of food which they </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">ate was weighed, and if they gained a
little we cut it off, and if they lost a </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">little we added a little to it--so that
by the end of ten days we could get </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">their normal ration. Meanwhile their excreta
were collected and analyzed, so </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">that we had a complete check on the normal
metabolic process by which the food </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">was utilized in the body and the refuse
matter excreted. You will understand </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">that the only excretions that we got were
the urine and the feces. All of the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">others were so small in proportion to
the whole mass that they were neglected; </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">in fact, it is impossible to get them;
no one has ever attempted it. Then we </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">began by adding to the food one of the
common preservatives--borax was first. We </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">had twelve young men, and to six of them
we gave borax in the form of boracic </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">acid, and to the other six borate of soda,
to see if there was any difference in </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">the effect of those two forms of borax
attending the metabolic process.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: Did you explain
that this was a dangerous process?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: We told them that
they might receive some injury from it.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: That is the
reason you took a release?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: We certainly would
not ask the young men to submit to it without </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">an explanation. We told them, of course,
that there was no danger by poisons, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">but that there might be some disturbance
to their systems.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: You thought
that there was nothing; but you took a release </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">because there was danger of losing life,
in a sense.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Yes, sir; we kept
nothing from them at all.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: Do you think
that had any effect upon them?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: We discuss that
in the book. That has been one of the objections </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">urged against this work, and it would
be urged against any work of the same </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">kind.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. CUSHMAN: Is that the
bunch known to the public as the "poison squad"?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: That is the one.
I suppose it was the most widely advertised </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">boarding house in the world.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Now, when we had established
their normal diet, then they agreed to eat it </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">every day whether they wanted it or not,
because
that was the important part of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">the experiment, that the food ingestion
must be constant, otherwise you could </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">not study the effect of the added substance
on metabolism.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: Do you explain
the effect in your book?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: That is all explained
in the greatest detail.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Now, of course, they did
that as long as their digestion was not impaired. </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">When it did become impaired they were
released at once from any further </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">administration of the drug. That was all
we wanted to do--to get the first </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">effects, never any more. We did not carry
it to any extreme. Once a man was </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">undoubtedly affected he was released.
You may ask how we knew how any </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">disturbance produced was due to borax,
and I answer because we eliminated all </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">the variables but that one. in the case
of the man who had led the same life, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">pursued the same vocation, eaten the same
food, and who did the same things, the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">only variable was the preservative; so
that if the variations are those which </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">would be expected to be produced by such
a variable, we logically traced the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">result of those variations to that one
variable, and especially so if when we </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">withdrew it the disturbance was removed.
Then the symptoms which had ensued </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">would be removed, and that was additional
proof. Therefore as far as possible we </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">ruled out every influence excepting the
one which we were controlling. Then we </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">had what we called "periods" of five days,
so that we studied them in periods of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">five days. We called it the first preservative
period, the second preservative </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">period, and so on, until we had usually
the preservative periods lasting for </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">about twenty days. That was the usual
rule. That was followed by a period in </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">which nothing but pure food was given
for ten days, the object being if possible </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">to restore the man to the normal state.
I will say very frankly that ten days as </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">a rule was not long enough to do that;
but as they then had a holiday and rested </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">for some time, it didn't make so much
difference to us.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: What do you
mean by a holiday?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: We kept our table
going all the time, but when a man had worked </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">for about forty days on these experiments
we then allowed forty days' rest, the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">same time that we had been working on
him.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. BARTLETT: That is, you
discontinued this character of food.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: We gave him then
nothing but pure food. We did not have to measure </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">his food or collect his excreta; and he
simply rested and got ready for another </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">trial.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Now, in our first year's
work we only fed six men at a time, so that we had </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">constant observation--six men on holiday
and six men on observation--but in </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">subsequent investigations we found it
much more convenient to feed all of the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">men at the same time and give them the
holiday at the same time. That appears </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">from the fact that the chemical work,
so far as analysis of foods is concerned, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">is just as great for six men as it is
for twelve, because we did not analyze </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">each person's food, but the food which
we gave all, so that we knew the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">composition of it. Therefore one analysis
would do for a hundred men just as </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">well as six. But the excreta that were
turned in had to be analyzed </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">separately--that is, every day, or the
composite for a number of days, whichever </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">seemed desirable.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: When you examined
that excreta: did you examine for any other </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">substance besides boric acid or benzoic
acid?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: In the digestion
of food the process is of two kinds. We have what </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">is called metabolized food and nonmetabolized
food, which is found largely in </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">the feces. Parts of the feces never enter
the system at all; they are the refuse </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">matter, and therefore we say that they
are.nonmetabolized. We simply wanted to </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">determine how much protein, how much fat,
how much sugar, etc., had come out in </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">the feces and had escaped digestion. Then
we examined the urine, which contains </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">the principal part of the degradation
products of the metabolized food. When the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">food enters the system, after the process
of digestion, it has two great </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">functions, as you gentlemen know. One
is to supply heat and energy. That food is </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">all burned up and converted into water
and carbon dioxide, just the same as you </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">burn a piece of coal in the fire and convert
it into carbon dioxide and into </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">water. And the great mass of food which
we eat is burned in the body and </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">produces heat and energy. Of course the
water and the carbon dioxide that come </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">from the lungs and the skin we did not
collect.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Then the food which goes
to build the tissues, or enters into the tissue, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">pushes out the degradation products in
the same quantity when the body is in </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">equilibrium, just as you fill a tube full
of marbles, and when you put one </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">marble in it you will push out another
at the other end. Now, if I feed you on </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">nitrogen to-day or to-morrow, when I go
to determine the nitrogen in your urine </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">I do not determine the nitrogen that you
have eaten to-day or yesterday, but if </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">your body is in equilibrium the amount
of nitrogen pushed out is exactly what </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">you push in. That is what we call the
balance, and in that way we can determine </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">whether any substance added to the food
disturbs the metabolic process and </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">interferes with digestion. And you can
only determine it in that way. The amount </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">of disturbance is so slight that you will
never notice it and yet so pronounced </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">that our chemical balance will reveal
it.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. BARTLETT: Doctor, I see
in the bill of fare that you give here that some </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">of the gentlemen took cranberries. What
did you add to the cranberries, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">anything?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: No, sir; we took
cranberries without anything. We did not add any </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">benzoic acid to those. I say that we used
the ordinary foods, a plain ration, so </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">that each man would eat on the same day
the same number of calories, the same </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">amount of nitrogen, the same amount of
phosphoric acid, the same amount of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">sulphur. We gave an excellent food, the
very best of the retailed canned goods. </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">I will say that nearly all of our vegetables
are canned vegetables. That shows </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">our attitude toward canned foods, which
has been said to be very hostile. We </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">used them because they are more uniform
in character, and when put up by </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">reputable firms are apt to be better than
the vegetables that you can buy in the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">open market. Our canned foods were canned
to order, so that all that we used </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">during the year were exactly alike. And
so important was that fact in the eyes </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">of an enterprising advertiser that he
went to one of the firms that sold us </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">these goods--we didn't buy all from one
firm--and wanted them to pay him </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">hundreds of dollars to write articles
saying that we were using his canned </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">foods. Of course, we promptly refused
to allow his name to be used.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. LOVERING: Did these young
men know when they were eating pure food or </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">not, and in what proportion?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: They did not know
what it was, necessarily, or how much. That was </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">our business. All they knew was the fact
that they were using something.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. MANN: For a long time
the daily papers published what they were being fed </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">upon.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: You can not always
rely upon newspaper accounts of scientific </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">investigations.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. MANN: I suppose the young
men read the accounts, and if you did not tell </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">them exactly what they were being fed
they might have thought they were being </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">fed on something else.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. RYAN: This so-called
"poison squad" was selected from employees of the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">various departments.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Almost altogether
from the Department of Agriculture. We had a few </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">from the other departments, however, and
a few from a medical school.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. RYAN: Did they receive
additional compensation for entering into this?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Not those that
were in our Department. Those that came from the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">outside were paid $5 a month in addition
to the other. We had to give them some </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">compensation; they could not serve in
the Department under other circumstances, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">because it was illegal. We gave them a
mere nominal sum so as to make their </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">employment legal. We would not take anybody
who was not in the Department in </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">some capacity.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. BARTLETT: Did you use
real butter or oleomargarine?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: The butter was
made to order, and contained neither salt nor </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">coloring matter--pure butter.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. ESCH: How about milk?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILDY: The milk came
from dairies inspected by the District authorities </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">and by myself.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. ESCH: Did you at any
time adulterate the milk?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Dim. WILEY: We sometimes
put the preservative we used in the milk.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. BARTLETT: Formaldehyde?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Formaldehyde we
did constantly, and borax part of the time.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. ESCH: How did the health
of these men continue; have you any statistics </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">on that?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: That is all here;
everything is recorded in full.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. CUSHMAN: Can you tell,
in a general way, some of the symptoms, or would </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">that be interrupting the effect of your
remarks?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: If you would like
a résumé of the borax matter, I will give that </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">in a few words. I will take the experiment
where we gave a minimum quantity, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">such as you would ordinarily get if you
ate meat and butter containing one-half </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">of 1 per cent of borax, in the ordinary
quantities of meat and butter and other </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">preserved foods which a healthy man would
eat. With the ordinary quantities of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">butter and meat preserved with borax there
would be consumed about 7-1/2 grains </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">of borax per day by each individual; and
so we fed that for sixty days in </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">succession, beginning with the preliminary
period of ten days, then following </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">sixty days in which we gave the borax.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. MANN: How much borax?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Seven and one-half
grains a day. That was given in two doses. Part </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">of the time in one dose, and part of the
time we divided it and gave 3-3/4 </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">grains at one time and 3-3/4 grains at
another time.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: How did you
give it?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: In butter and
in milk and in capsules. We tried all methods.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. BARTLETT: Did you give
any tomato catsup with any of these meats?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: I don't think
we did.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Now, I want to say this,
because I regard it as important. For fifteen or </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">twenty days, or even longer in some cases,
no visible effects were produced in </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">what you would call "symptoms. " The young
men had normal appetites and </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">performed their work without any discomfort,
and had no complaints. After that </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">time they began to eat their ration with
some little discomfort. They were under </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">obligation to do it, but they often said:
"I wish you could let this go; I don't </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">want it." Their appetites began to fail.
At the end every one of their appetites </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">was very badly affected, and some of them
were unable any longer to eat the full </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">amount. Of course we never required anything
that was impossible. They developed </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">persistent headaches in most cases, followed
by general depression and debility. </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">It was extremely well marked in every
instance.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. KENNEDY: Did they get
nauseated and want to refuse the food with the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">preservative in?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: They were occasionally
nauseated. We had every variety of food </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">that anybody commonly eats. We varied
their menu every day.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. KENNEDY: Did the boys
seem to get tired of it; did they want to refuse </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">the food?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: That is the reason
we had to resort to capsules, because the very </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">moment he found it in the milk or in the
butter he didn't want to use the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">butter. I would say that this is all set
out in here. We were led to the use of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">capsules because of the objections to
which you refer. It may be all wrong, but </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">that, of course, is a matter for you gentlemen
to decide.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. ADA MSON: When they took
the food, did it have some effect on the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">appetite?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: It had a worse
effect in the food when they knew it was in the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">food, because it became repugnant to them.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. KENNEDY: Don't you think
this repugnance is nature's own method of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">correcting these things I I remember that
out in our town two fellows made a </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">wager with another fellow that he could
not eat a quail a day for thirty days in </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">succession. He did it, but it made him
sick. That was because there was nothing </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">wrong with the quail, but he was taking
it too consistently.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: There is a great
difference between a quail and borax; the latter </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">is a drug.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. KENNEDY: A man's life
was imperiled by his trying to win that bet; he </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">became very sick.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: I will answer
that by saying that it is the universal experience </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">of physicians that the drug habit grows;
the more drug you take the more you </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">need to produce the effect, and the less
its effect; so that it is just the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">opposite to the effect that you mention.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: Did you try
the same experiment with benzoic acid?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Not for so long
a time, but a shorter length of time.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: But on the
same plan?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: The same plan.
That will be fully brought out in the publication.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. WANGER: Was there, at
the end of the period of the administration of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">these preservatives, an immediate relief
and restoration of the appetite, or was </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">that a slow process?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Unfortunately
the effects in some cases were very much prolonged. </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Some of the young men--the experiments
ended in July, or in June, the end of the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">year--and some of the young men complained
even through the summer, and it was </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">late in the autumn before they recovered
their full normal appetites.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. WANGER: That would furnish
a strong presumption that it was not the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">mental idea connected with the daily use
of the preservatives that caused the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">loss of appetite.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: It might be that
the mental attitude was a strong factor, but when </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">you get used to a thing after three or
four days the mental attitude becomes </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">less important. And I got a beautiful
illustration of that in our own </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">investigation, because I realized that
a very reasonable objection is made </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">against experiments of this kind, against
all pharmacological experiments, by </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">reason of the mental attitude of the patient,
and I give full credit to the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">objection in the book, which you will
see. I discuss that fully and frankly, and </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">give value to the objections.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> But this strange thing happened
when we came to salicylic acid. We had an </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">almost new set of young men. We had a
few that had come over from the borax </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">period, but one year of this kind of life
is as much as a young man wants. They </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">enlisted for a year. So we had a new list.
They must have had the same attitude </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">toward salicylic acid that the first set
had toward borax, and yet when we began </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">to feed them salicylic acid there was
an immediate improvement in the appetite; </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">most of the young men seemed better, wanted
more to eat, and it had exactly the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">opposite effect that borax had. Now, if
it had been mental attitude in both </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">cases the effect upon these men would
have been the same. But we had the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">opposite effect. So I think that is the
most happy proof. It came instantly, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">unexpectedly; we were not looking for
it. The effect of the mental attitude, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">which must be considered, does not have
the great importance that has been </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">ascribed to it.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: These men made
releases?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Yes, sir.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: How do you
explain the effect of a drug--the fact that the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">constant use of it inures a person to
it?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: I think that is
easily explained. As you get used to the effect of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">a drug you never improve in health. The
man who forms the opium habit takes more </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">and more of the drug, but his health goes
down all the time. You can tolerate </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">more of the drug, but your health is going
all the time, and it takes more of </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">the drug to produce a given effect.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. MANN: You say that in
the experiments with borax the effects continued </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">some time after the feeding of the borax
to the young men, so that there is a </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">cumulative effect of borax upon the system?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: I referred to
that yesterday, and I will restate it. Professor </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Rost, of the imperial board of health
of Berlin, whose work I have here, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">criticized our work because we said that
practically all of the borax was </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">eradicated from the body after ten days.
He contends that a lot of it remains in </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">there for a longer time and comes out
in the waste material a little at a time </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">for weeks and months, so that his testimony
is very much more in favor of the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">cumulative effects of those substances
than our own.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. TOWNSEND: Have you tested
for that?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: We have made some
tests on that during this last winter, but I </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">have not as yet collated and studied the
data.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. MANN: Does your report
show that in your opinion the use of borax has a </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">deleterious effect upon the organs of
the body?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: Of course you
understand, Mr. Mann, the tests that we have made </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">are not the same as those made upon animals
fed for pharmacological experiments, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">because after a given time the animals
are killed and their organs are examined, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">and the changes in the cells are studied
by the microscope. We were precluded </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">from doing that.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. MANN: Is that your conclusion?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: My conclusion
is that the cells must have been injured, but I had </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">no demonstration of it, because I could
not kill the young men and examine the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">kidneys.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. MANN: Your judgment was
that the borax was excreted from the body; it did </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">not remain, but that the effects did remain?
How else could the effect remain </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">excepting in some way affecting the organs
of the body?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: I think it must
have affected the organs of the body. I think that </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">is conclusive proof of it.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. ADAMSON: Is the process
of resolving these foods into their original </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">elements so difficult that scientists
cannot furnish the people any practical </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">method of safely separating preservatives
from food when they get ready to use </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">them?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: It is quite impractical
to separate the whole of any preservatives </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">from food, though it probably can be done.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. MANN: Does it make any
difference how borax is administered, whether </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">administered by itself or administered
in connection with foods, and is there a </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">difference in the effect between the administration
of a preservative in milk or </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">in some kind of solid food, for instance?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: The ideal way
to administer substances of this kind would be in </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">solution in the food. But that has such
practical difficulties that in almost </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">all pharmacological experiments like these
which have been performed by the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">thousand in the world, the method which
we finally adopted as the best has been </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">adopted--that is, the introduction of
the substance into the stomach in the form </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">of capsules, where nature quickly mixes
it entirely up with the contents of the </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">stomach.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> MR. MANN: Do not some scientists
think that there is a difference in effect </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">whether it is administered in one food
or another?</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> DR. WILEY: That is the objection
I have seen in scientific publications and </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">in the public press urged against our
work by Mr. H. H. Langdon, who has written </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">a great many letters condemnatory of the
work. Mr. Langdon, as I have learned, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">is employed by the borax company to do
this work. He has called attention to </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">that point in the public press.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Many poetic descriptions
of the poison squad were published, among the best </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">of which are the following by S. W. Gillilan
and Lew Dockstader:</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">THE SONG OF THE POISON SQUAD</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">(Respectfully Dedicated to the Department
of Agriculture)</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">By S. W. GILLILAN</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> 0 we're the merriest herd of hulks</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> that ever the
world has seen;</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> We don't shy off from your rough</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> on rats or even
from Paris green:</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> We're on the hunt for a toxic dope</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> That's certain
to kill, sans fail.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> But 'tis a tricky, elusive thing
and</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> knows we are
on its trail;</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> For all the things that could kill</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> we've downed
in many a gruesome wad,</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> And still we're gaining a pound
a day,</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> for we are the
Pizen Squad.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> On Prussic acid we break our fast; </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> we lunch on a
morphine stew;</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> We dine with a matchhead consomme, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> drink carbolic
acid brew;</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Corrosive sublimate tones us up </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> like laudanum.
ketchup rare,</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> While tyro-toxicon condiments </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> are wholesome
as mountain air.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Thus all the "deadlies" we double-dare </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> to put us beneath
the sod;</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> We're death-immunes and we're proud
as proud--</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Hooray for the
Pizen Squad!</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica">As Sung by Lew Dockstader--</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">in His Minstrel Company</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica">Washington, D. C., week of October 4,
1903</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> If ever you should visit the Smithsonian
Institute,</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Look out that Professor Wiley doesn't
make you a recruit.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> He's got a lot of fellows there
that tell him how they feel,</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> They take a batch of poison every
time they eat a meal.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> For breakfast they get cyanide
of liver, coffin shaped,</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> For dinner, undertaker's pie, all
trimmed with crepe;</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> For supper, arsenic fritters, fried
in appetizing shade,</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> And late at night they get a prussic
acid lemonade.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> (Chorus)</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> They may get over it, but they'll
never look the same.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> That kind of a bill of fare would
drive most men insane.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> Next week he'll give them moth
balls, </font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> a LA Newburgh,
or else plain.</font>
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> They may get over it, but they'll
never look the same.</font>
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"> </font></td>
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