FDA History 02

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Human Experiments Prove Food Preservatives Harmful to

Health

FDA History 02

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HISTORY OF A CRIME AGAINST THE FOOD LAW

CHAPTER II: THE POISON SQUAD

by Harvey W. Wiley, M.D., the very first commissioner

of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), then known

as the “US Bureau of Chemistry.”

 

Vulnuratus, non victus.--Proverb

 

PROLOGUE

Confucius says:

" The commander of the forces of a large state may

be carried off, but the

will of even a common man can not be taken from

him. "

In the foregoing pages attention was called to the

experiments making on

healthy young men to determine the influence of

preservatives and coloring

matters on health and digestion. The general method of

conducting these

investigations was discussed. Altogether nearly five

years were devoted to these

experimental determinations, beginning in 1902 and

lasting until 1907.

The total number of substances studied was seven,

namely, boric acid and

borax, salicylic acid and salicylates, benzoic acid

and benzoates, sulphur

dioxide and sulphites, formaldehyde, sulphate of

copper, and saltpeter.

Reports of these investigations were published,

with the exception of

sulphate of copper and saltpeter, which were denied

publication. In 1908 further

investigations of this kind were allotted to the

Remsen Board whose activities

will be described in the following pages. The Bureau

of Chemistry was

" grievously wounded but not conquerered " by this

transfer of its activities.

ANOTHER THREATENING STORM

Anyone who has observed the occurrence of tornados,

cyclones, and thunder

storms, especially in the spring, has noticed their

tendency to occur in groups.

This is especially true of any particular locality and

generally of those parts

of our country in which these visitations, often

destructive to life and

property, are common. The storms which threatened the

integrity of the food law

were of this kind. They were different, however, from

the caprices of the

weather in the time of the year they occurred. The

most threatening of them

arose, not in the spring, but in the winter of 1907.

The transfer of authority

to execute the law from the Bureau of Chemistry to the

Board of Food and Drug

Inspection, and from that Board to the Solicitor, was

a very good introduction

to what occurred soon after January 1st, 1907. Even

after the Bureau of

Chemistry was deprived of its power of autonomy, it

still retained intact its

function of judging what was a threat to health.

WISE FORESIGHT

Prior to the enactment of the food and drugs law it

was evident from the

increase in popular interest in this matter that the

enlistment of organized

bodies of men and women interested in securing this

legislation would sooner or

later become effective. It was considered the part of

wisdom to prepare for this

much wished-for consummation. Numerous attempts had

been made before the

Congress of the United States to change the wording of

the proposed bill in such

a way as to eliminate the Bureau of Chemistry as the

active executive

organization of the law when passed. All of these

attempts had been almost

unanimously negatived by the Congress as often as they

were offered. It seemed,

therefore, quite certain that when the law finally was

secured the Bureau of

Chemistry would be retained as its executive agent. As

early as 1902 authority

was obtained from Congress to carry on feeding

experiments on healthy young men.

The language of the law follows:

" To enable the Secretary of Agriculture to

investigate the character of

food preservatives, coloring matters, and other

substances added to foods, to

determine their relation to digestion and to health,

and to establish the

principles which should guide their use. "

The object was to see if the preservatives and

coloring matters added to

foods would have any effect upon the digestion and

health of these young men.

Young men as a rule are more resistant to effects of

this kind than children or

older persons. They represent the maximum of

resistance to deleterious foods.

The deduction from this theory is that if the young

men thus selected showed

signs of injury other citizens of the country less

resistant would be more

seriously injured. Having received authority from

Congress to proceed in this

matter, a small kitchen and dining room were provided

in the basement of the

Bureau and a call issued for volunteers to join this

experimental class. We

asked chiefly employees of the Bureau. We had no

difficulty in securing twelve

healthy young men who volunteered their services and

took an oath to obey all

rules and regulations which should be prescribed for

the experimental dining

table. Their term of enlistment was made for one year.

Up to this time no such

extensive experiment on human beings had been planned

anywhere in the world. It

was not necessary to ask any publicity to this matter.

It was a problem which

interested not only newspaper reporters and editors,

but the public at large.

One reporter who was most constant in his attendance,

and this was the beginning

of his reportorial work, had the happy faculty of

presenting the progress of the

experiment in terms which appealed to the public

imagination. He early

designated this band of devoted young men as " The

Poison Squad. " There was

rarely a day in which he did not visit the

experimental table and write some

interesting item in regard thereto. This cub reporter

is now the celebrated

author of the " Post-Scripts " in the Washington Post,

George Rothwell Brown.

 

 

The Dining Room of " The Poison Squad "

 

LENGTH AND PURPOSE OF THE EXPERIMENT

For five years these experiments continued and

investigations of an extensive

character were carried on with the preservatives which

were in most common use.

The chemical and physiological data accumulated were

vast in extent and

presented great difficulties in interpretation.

Following the rule adopted by

the Bureau, every doubtful problem was resolved in

favor of the American

consumer. This appeared the only safe ethical ground

to occupy. Decisions

against the manufacturers who used these bodies could

be reviewed in the courts

when the food law became established, whereas if these

doubtful problems had

been resolved in favor of the manufacturers the

consumer would have had no

redress. Without going into further detail in regard

to these experiments it may

be said that one of the common colors and all the

common preservatives used in

foods were banned from use by a unanimous verdict

against them.

 

DATA PUBLISHED

The greater part of these data was published as

parts of Bulletin 84, Bureau

of Chemistry. They comprise: Part I--Boric Acid and

Borax; Part II--Salicylic

Acid and Salicylates; Part III--Sulphurous Acid and

Sulphites; Part IV-Benzoic

Acid and Benzoates; Part V--Formaldehyde; Part

VI--Sulphate of Copper; Part

VII--Saltpeter.

When the data relating to benzoic acid were

submitted, the Remsen Board had

already been appointed. The Secretary, about to depart

on vacation, sent for

George W. Hill, Editor of the Department, and said:

" Publish what you like during my absence except

that the bulletin on

benzoic acid is not to go to the printer. "

Mr. Hill misunderstood his instructions. He sent

the benzoate bulletin to the

public printer with instructions to hurry it through.

When the Secretary

returned the printing was finished. A reprint of it

was promptly denied. The

total number of pages in the parts of Bulletin 84

which have been published is

1500.

DATA REFUSED PUBLICATION

Vigorous protests from those engaged in

adulterating and misbranding foods

were made to the Secretary of Agriculture against any

further publicity in this

direction. As a result of these protests he refused

publication of Parts VI and

VII of Bulletin 84. Part VI contained a study of the

effects on health and

digestion of sulphate of copper added to our foods.

The conclusions drawn by the

Bureau were adverse to its use. The Remsen Board

subsequently made a study of

sulphate of copper and reached a like decision. The

ban on copper was based on

the work of the Remson Board and not on that of the

Bureau, which preceded it by

three years. During this interval the use of this

deleterious product was

unrestricted.

The seventh part treated of the use of saltpeter

(sodium nitrite), particularly in meats.

Owing to the well-known results of the depressing

effects of saltpeter on the

gonads, and for other reasons, the Bureau refused to

approve the use of this

coloring agent in cured meats. These two bulletins

still repose in the morgue of

the Department of Agriculture. They are not, however,

deprived of companionship.

In the testimony of the Secretary of Agriculture

before the committee on

expenditures in the Department of Agriculture (the

Moss Committee), it is found

that the following additional manuscripts prepared by

the Bureau of Chemistry

were refused publication, namely, Experiments Looking

to Substitutes for Sulphur

Dioxides in Drying Fruits, by W. D. Bigelow; Corn

Sirup as a Synonym for

Glucose, offered for publication in 1907; Sanitary

Conditions of Canneries,

Based on Results of Inspection, by A. W . Bitting,

offered for publication in

1908; Reprint of Part IV of Benzoic Acid and

Benzoates, asked for in 1909;

Medicated Soft Drinks, by L. F. Kebler, offered in

1909; Drug Legislation in the

United States, by C. H. Greathouse, offered in 1909;

Food Legislation to June

30, 1909, offered in 1910; The Estimation of Glycerine

in Meat Preparations, by

C. F. Cook, offered in March, 1910; Technical Drug

Studies, by L. F. Kebler,

offered in 1910; Experiments on the Spoilage of Tomato

Ketchup, by A. W.

Bitting, offered in 1911; the Influence of Environment

on the Sugar Content of

Cantaloupes, by M. N. Straugh and C. G. Church,

offered in May, 1911; A

Bacteriological Study of Eggs in the Shell and of

Frozen and Desiccated Eggs, by

G. W. Stiles, May, 1911; The Arsenic Content of

Shellac, offered June, 1911.

All of these publications are in the morgue. They

were objected to by parties

using preservatives and coloring matters and articles

adulterated with arsenic,

and these protests against publication were approved

and put in force by the

Secretary of Agriculture. In other words, all the

principles which animated the

Inquisition were used by the Department of Agriculture

to prevent any further

dissemination of the studies and conclusions of the

Bureau in regard to the

wholesomeness of our foods. The whole power of the

Department of Agriculture was

enlisted in the service of adulteration which tended

to destroy the health of

the American consumer. On the appointment of the

Remsen Board further

investigations by the Bureau were ordered to be

suspended.

Further information regarding the activities of the

Poison Squad were

presented to the Committee of Interstate and Foreign

Commerce during the final

hearings on the Food and Drug Legislation. This

information has the

distinguishing tone of question and answer which adds

much to its interest and

value. Quotations from those hearings follow:

THE BORAX INVESTIGATION

HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE

AND FOREIGN COMMERCE

DR. WILEY: Now, I want to introduce the borax

bulletin in evidence; not to

have it copied, but simply to have it as an exhibit,

because all of you have

copies in your desks. That will answer the question

which was asked me yesterday

about the kind of work done by these young men. You

gentlemen need only to

glance through this book of 477 pages to see the

amount of labor that has been

put upon this investigation.

MR. TOWNSEND: When did you begin your investigation

of boric acid?

DR. WILEY: In the autumn of 1902.

MR. TOWNSEND: How long were you experimenting on

that?

DR. WILEY: We were from the 1st of October to the

1st of the following July.

MR. TOWNSEND: About nine months?

DR. WILEY: Yes, sir.

MR. TOWNSEND: How soon after that did you make a

report?

DR. WILEY: On the 25th of June, 1904; just about a

year after the close of

the investigation.

MR. TOWNSEND: You did not publish it in 1903?

DR. WILEY: We published a synopsis--a preliminary

report--in 1903.

MR. TOWNSEND: You said yesterday that you had not

had time, as I remember it,

or had not been able--I don't remember just exactly

how you answered it--to

report your investigation of benzoic acid, which had

only occupied three months

and which was completed in the fall, as I remember it,

of 1902.

DR. WILEY: On benzoic acid?

MR. TOWNSEND: Yes; benzoic. acid.

DR. WILEY: The benzoic-acid investigation was not

begun until the spring of

1904, and was completed before November, 1904.

MR. TOWNSEND: Are you sure about that? As I took it

down yesterday in a note,

it was begun in the fall of 1902.

DR. WILEY: Then you misunderstood me; it was not. I

was referring to the time

I commenced the first investigation.

MR. TOWNSEND: Then I misunderstood you. Who

assisted you in making those

investigations on borax and benzoic acid?

DR. WILEY: About twenty or twenty-five men besides

the subjects.

MR. TOWNSEND: Were any of them of national

reputation as scientists?

DR. WILEY: Dr. Bigelow, who is here, is a man of

good reputation. He is the

one who collaborated with me in, particular. The

others are chemists in fair

standing, but they are not men of great reputation in

a personal way.

MR. TOWNSEND: Connected with the Department?

DR. WILEY: Connected with the Department of

Agriculture here; yes, sir. I

will explain the method of investigation briefly,

because I know you gentlemen

do not care to read this voluminous document.

The young men were selected mostly from the

Department of Agriculture--I

believe the first were all from the Department of

Agriculture. They were young

men who had passed the civil-service examinations, and

therefore came to us with

a good character, as is usual in such cases. These

young men were volunteers. We

explained to them fully the character of the work that

we proposed to do, not

particularly stating what we were going to give them,

or how, but what our

general purpose was, and that was to place in good

wholesome foods certain

quantities, which we were to select ourselves, of the

ordinary preservatives and

coloring matters used in foods, and to feed them on

these foods with such

materials in them.

MR. TOWNSEND: Exclusively with those materials?

DR. WILEY: Oh, no. I will explain, and you will

understand how we did it.

These men signed a pledge in which they agreed on

their honor to carry out all

the necessary regulations. They signed a pledge to eat

nothing or drink nothing

excepting what we gave them at the table. They signed

a pledge to pursue their

ordinary vocations without any excesses and to take

their ordinary hours of

sleep. They agreed that they would collect and present

to us every particle of

their secreta, so that none of it should be lost, and

to follow out the rules

and regulations necessary to carry out the conduct of

the work.

MR. ESCH: Did you require any physical examination?

DR. WILEY: Yes, sir; we had a surgeon detailed from

the Public Health

Service, who examined all of these men physically and

saw that they had no

disease, and that they had had no disease within a

year, or any sickness of any

kind.

MR. TOWNSEND: They were allowed to live at their

homes?

DR. WILEY: Yes, sir.

MR. TOWNSEND: How did you collect their

perspiration?

DR. WILEY: Perspiration was not collected excepting

in one case. We collected

perspiration in one case to determine how much borax

was exuded through the

skin, but in no other.

MR. BARTLETT: You had a release if they died?

DR. WILEY: Yes, sir; from any injury that they

might receive.

That was their preliminary work. The first thing

which we did was to

ascertain, by their own choice largely, the character

of good wholesome foods to

be used, absolutely free of adulterants, a natural

diet which would keep their

bodies in a state of equilibrium so that, neither the

question of added weight

or of losing weight--that is to say, in a fore period,

which was a period of

about ten days, the body was weighed every day, the

amount of food which they

ate was weighed, and if they gained a little we cut it

off, and if they lost a

little we added a little to it--so that by the end of

ten days we could get

their normal ration. Meanwhile their excreta were

collected and analyzed, so

that we had a complete check on the normal metabolic

process by which the food

was utilized in the body and the refuse matter

excreted. You will understand

that the only excretions that we got were the urine

and the feces. All of the

others were so small in proportion to the whole mass

that they were neglected;

in fact, it is impossible to get them; no one has ever

attempted it. Then we

began by adding to the food one of the common

preservatives--borax was first. We

had twelve young men, and to six of them we gave borax

in the form of boracic

acid, and to the other six borate of soda, to see if

there was any difference in

the effect of those two forms of borax attending the

metabolic process.

MR. TOWNSEND: Did you explain that this was a

dangerous process?

DR. WILEY: We told them that they might receive

some injury from it.

MR. TOWNSEND: That is the reason you took a

release?

DR. WILEY: We certainly would not ask the young men

to submit to it without

an explanation. We told them, of course, that there

was no danger by poisons,

but that there might be some disturbance to their

systems.

MR. TOWNSEND: You thought that there was nothing;

but you took a release

because there was danger of losing life, in a sense.

DR. WILEY: Yes, sir; we kept nothing from them at

all.

MR. TOWNSEND: Do you think that had any effect upon

them?

DR. WILEY: We discuss that in the book. That has

been one of the objections

urged against this work, and it would be urged against

any work of the same

kind.

MR. CUSHMAN: Is that the bunch known to the public

as the " poison squad " ?

DR. WILEY: That is the one. I suppose it was the

most widely advertised

boarding house in the world.

Now, when we had established their normal diet,

then they agreed to eat it

every day whether they wanted it or not, because that

was the important part of

the experiment, that the food ingestion must be

constant, otherwise you could

not study the effect of the added substance on

metabolism.

MR. TOWNSEND: Do you explain the effect in your

book?

DR. WILEY: That is all explained in the greatest

detail.

Now, of course, they did that as long as their

digestion was not impaired.

When it did become impaired they were released at once

from any further

administration of the drug. That was all we wanted to

do--to get the first

effects, never any more. We did not carry it to any

extreme. Once a man was

undoubtedly affected he was released. You may ask how

we knew how any

disturbance produced was due to borax, and I answer

because we eliminated all

the variables but that one. in the case of the man who

had led the same life,

pursued the same vocation, eaten the same food, and

who did the same things, the

only variable was the preservative; so that if the

variations are those which

would be expected to be produced by such a variable,

we logically traced the

result of those variations to that one variable, and

especially so if when we

withdrew it the disturbance was removed. Then the

symptoms which had ensued

would be removed, and that was additional proof.

Therefore as far as possible we

ruled out every influence excepting the one which we

were controlling. Then we

had what we called " periods " of five days, so that we

studied them in periods of

five days. We called it the first preservative period,

the second preservative

period, and so on, until we had usually the

preservative periods lasting for

about twenty days. That was the usual rule. That was

followed by a period in

which nothing but pure food was given for ten days,

the object being if possible

to restore the man to the normal state. I will say

very frankly that ten days as

a rule was not long enough to do that; but as they

then had a holiday and rested

for some time, it didn't make so much difference to

us.

MR. TOWNSEND: What do you mean by a holiday?

DR. WILEY: We kept our table going all the time,

but when a man had worked

for about forty days on these experiments we then

allowed forty days' rest, the

same time that we had been working on him.

MR. BARTLETT: That is, you discontinued this

character of food.

DR. WILEY: We gave him then nothing but pure food.

We did not have to measure

his food or collect his excreta; and he simply rested

and got ready for another

trial.

Now, in our first year's work we only fed six men

at a time, so that we had

constant observation--six men on holiday and six men

on observation--but in

subsequent investigations we found it much more

convenient to feed all of the

men at the same time and give them the holiday at the

same time. That appears

from the fact that the chemical work, so far as

analysis of foods is concerned,

is just as great for six men as it is for twelve,

because we did not analyze

each person's food, but the food which we gave all, so

that we knew the

composition of it. Therefore one analysis would do for

a hundred men just as

well as six. But the excreta that were turned in had

to be analyzed

separately--that is, every day, or the composite for a

number of days, whichever

seemed desirable.

MR. TOWNSEND: When you examined that excreta: did

you examine for any other

substance besides boric acid or benzoic acid?

DR. WILEY: In the digestion of food the process is

of two kinds. We have what

is called metabolized food and nonmetabolized food,

which is found largely in

the feces. Parts of the feces never enter the system

at all; they are the refuse

matter, and therefore we say that they

are.nonmetabolized. We simply wanted to

determine how much protein, how much fat, how much

sugar, etc., had come out in

the feces and had escaped digestion. Then we examined

the urine, which contains

the principal part of the degradation products of the

metabolized food. When the

food enters the system, after the process of

digestion, it has two great

functions, as you gentlemen know. One is to supply

heat and energy. That food is

all burned up and converted into water and carbon

dioxide, just the same as you

burn a piece of coal in the fire and convert it into

carbon dioxide and into

water. And the great mass of food which we eat is

burned in the body and

produces heat and energy. Of course the water and the

carbon dioxide that come

from the lungs and the skin we did not collect.

Then the food which goes to build the tissues, or

enters into the tissue,

pushes out the degradation products in the same

quantity when the body is in

equilibrium, just as you fill a tube full of marbles,

and when you put one

marble in it you will push out another at the other

end. Now, if I feed you on

nitrogen to-day or to-morrow, when I go to determine

the nitrogen in your urine

I do not determine the nitrogen that you have eaten

to-day or yesterday, but if

your body is in equilibrium the amount of nitrogen

pushed out is exactly what

you push in. That is what we call the balance, and in

that way we can determine

whether any substance added to the food disturbs the

metabolic process and

interferes with digestion. And you can only determine

it in that way. The amount

of disturbance is so slight that you will never notice

it and yet so pronounced

that our chemical balance will reveal it.

MR. BARTLETT: Doctor, I see in the bill of fare

that you give here that some

of the gentlemen took cranberries. What did you add to

the cranberries,

anything?

DR. WILEY: No, sir; we took cranberries without

anything. We did not add any

benzoic acid to those. I say that we used the ordinary

foods, a plain ration, so

that each man would eat on the same day the same

number of calories, the same

amount of nitrogen, the same amount of phosphoric

acid, the same amount of

sulphur. We gave an excellent food, the very best of

the retailed canned goods.

I will say that nearly all of our vegetables are

canned vegetables. That shows

our attitude toward canned foods, which has been said

to be very hostile. We

used them because they are more uniform in character,

and when put up by

reputable firms are apt to be better than the

vegetables that you can buy in the

open market. Our canned foods were canned to order, so

that all that we used

during the year were exactly alike. And so important

was that fact in the eyes

of an enterprising advertiser that he went to one of

the firms that sold us

these goods--we didn't buy all from one firm--and

wanted them to pay him

hundreds of dollars to write articles saying that we

were using his canned

foods. Of course, we promptly refused to allow his

name to be used.

MR. LOVERING: Did these young men know when they

were eating pure food or

not, and in what proportion?

DR. WILEY: They did not know what it was,

necessarily, or how much. That was

our business. All they knew was the fact that they

were using something.

MR. MANN: For a long time the daily papers

published what they were being fed

upon.

DR. WILEY: You can not always rely upon newspaper

accounts of scientific

investigations.

MR. MANN: I suppose the young men read the

accounts, and if you did not tell

them exactly what they were being fed they might have

thought they were being

fed on something else.

MR. RYAN: This so-called " poison squad " was

selected from employees of the

various departments.

DR. WILEY: Almost altogether from the Department of

Agriculture. We had a few

from the other departments, however, and a few from a

medical school.

MR. RYAN: Did they receive additional compensation

for entering into this?

DR. WILEY: Not those that were in our Department.

Those that came from the

outside were paid $5 a month in addition to the other.

We had to give them some

compensation; they could not serve in the Department

under other circumstances,

because it was illegal. We gave them a mere nominal

sum so as to make their

employment legal. We would not take anybody who was

not in the Department in

some capacity.

MR. BARTLETT: Did you use real butter or

oleomargarine?

DR. WILEY: The butter was made to order, and

contained neither salt nor

coloring matter--pure butter.

MR. ESCH: How about milk?

DR. WILDY: The milk came from dairies inspected by

the District authorities

and by myself.

MR. ESCH: Did you at any time adulterate the milk?

Dim. WILEY: We sometimes put the preservative we

used in the milk.

MR. BARTLETT: Formaldehyde?

DR. WILEY: Formaldehyde we did constantly, and

borax part of the time.

MR. ESCH: How did the health of these men continue;

have you any statistics

on that?

DR. WILEY: That is all here; everything is recorded

in full.

MR. CUSHMAN: Can you tell, in a general way, some

of the symptoms, or would

that be interrupting the effect of your remarks?

DR. WILEY: If you would like a résumé of the borax

matter, I will give that

in a few words. I will take the experiment where we

gave a minimum quantity,

such as you would ordinarily get if you ate meat and

butter containing one-half

of 1 per cent of borax, in the ordinary quantities of

meat and butter and other

preserved foods which a healthy man would eat. With

the ordinary quantities of

butter and meat preserved with borax there would be

consumed about 7-1/2 grains

of borax per day by each individual; and so we fed

that for sixty days in

succession, beginning with the preliminary period of

ten days, then following

sixty days in which we gave the borax.

MR. MANN: How much borax?

DR. WILEY: Seven and one-half grains a day. That

was given in two doses. Part

of the time in one dose, and part of the time we

divided it and gave 3-3/4

grains at one time and 3-3/4 grains at another time.

MR. TOWNSEND: How did you give it?

DR. WILEY: In butter and in milk and in capsules.

We tried all methods.

MR. BARTLETT: Did you give any tomato catsup with

any of these meats?

DR. WILEY: I don't think we did.

Now, I want to say this, because I regard it as

important. For fifteen or

twenty days, or even longer in some cases, no visible

effects were produced in

what you would call " symptoms. " The young men had

normal appetites and

performed their work without any discomfort, and had

no complaints. After that

time they began to eat their ration with some little

discomfort. They were under

obligation to do it, but they often said: " I wish you

could let this go; I don't

want it. " Their appetites began to fail. At the end

every one of their appetites

was very badly affected, and some of them were unable

any longer to eat the full

amount. Of course we never required anything that was

impossible. They developed

persistent headaches in most cases, followed by

general depression and debility.

It was extremely well marked in every instance.

MR. KENNEDY: Did they get nauseated and want to

refuse the food with the

preservative in?

DR. WILEY: They were occasionally nauseated. We had

every variety of food

that anybody commonly eats. We varied their menu every

day.

MR. KENNEDY: Did the boys seem to get tired of it;

did they want to refuse

the food?

DR. WILEY: That is the reason we had to resort to

capsules, because the very

moment he found it in the milk or in the butter he

didn't want to use the

butter. I would say that this is all set out in here.

We were led to the use of

capsules because of the objections to which you refer.

It may be all wrong, but

that, of course, is a matter for you gentlemen to

decide.

MR. ADA MSON: When they took the food, did it have

some effect on the

appetite?

DR. WILEY: It had a worse effect in the food when

they knew it was in the

food, because it became repugnant to them.

MR. KENNEDY: Don't you think this repugnance is

nature's own method of

correcting these things I I remember that out in our

town two fellows made a

wager with another fellow that he could not eat a

quail a day for thirty days in

succession. He did it, but it made him sick. That was

because there was nothing

wrong with the quail, but he was taking it too

consistently.

DR. WILEY: There is a great difference between a

quail and borax; the latter

is a drug.

MR. KENNEDY: A man's life was imperiled by his

trying to win that bet; he

became very sick.

DR. WILEY: I will answer that by saying that it is

the universal experience

of physicians that the drug habit grows; the more drug

you take the more you

need to produce the effect, and the less its effect;

so that it is just the

opposite to the effect that you mention.

MR. TOWNSEND: Did you try the same experiment with

benzoic acid?

DR. WILEY: Not for so long a time, but a shorter

length of time.

MR. TOWNSEND: But on the same plan?

DR. WILEY: The same plan. That will be fully

brought out in the publication.

MR. WANGER: Was there, at the end of the period of

the administration of

these preservatives, an immediate relief and

restoration of the appetite, or was

that a slow process?

DR. WILEY: Unfortunately the effects in some cases

were very much prolonged.

Some of the young men--the experiments ended in July,

or in June, the end of the

year--and some of the young men complained even

through the summer, and it was

late in the autumn before they recovered their full

normal appetites.

MR. WANGER: That would furnish a strong presumption

that it was not the

mental idea connected with the daily use of the

preservatives that caused the

loss of appetite.

DR. WILEY: It might be that the mental attitude was

a strong factor, but when

you get used to a thing after three or four days the

mental attitude becomes

less important. And I got a beautiful illustration of

that in our own

investigation, because I realized that a very

reasonable objection is made

against experiments of this kind, against all

pharmacological experiments, by

reason of the mental attitude of the patient, and I

give full credit to the

objection in the book, which you will see. I discuss

that fully and frankly, and

give value to the objections.

But this strange thing happened when we came to

salicylic acid. We had an

almost new set of young men. We had a few that had

come over from the borax

period, but one year of this kind of life is as much

as a young man wants. They

enlisted for a year. So we had a new list. They must

have had the same attitude

toward salicylic acid that the first set had toward

borax, and yet when we began

to feed them salicylic acid there was an immediate

improvement in the appetite;

most of the young men seemed better, wanted more to

eat, and it had exactly the

opposite effect that borax had. Now, if it had been

mental attitude in both

cases the effect upon these men would have been the

same. But we had the

opposite effect. So I think that is the most happy

proof. It came instantly,

unexpectedly; we were not looking for it. The effect

of the mental attitude,

which must be considered, does not have the great

importance that has been

ascribed to it.

MR. TOWNSEND: These men made releases?

DR. WILEY: Yes, sir.

MR. TOWNSEND: How do you explain the effect of a

drug--the fact that the

constant use of it inures a person to it?

DR. WILEY: I think that is easily explained. As you

get used to the effect of

a drug you never improve in health. The man who forms

the opium habit takes more

and more of the drug, but his health goes down all the

time. You can tolerate

more of the drug, but your health is going all the

time, and it takes more of

the drug to produce a given effect.

MR. MANN: You say that in the experiments with

borax the effects continued

some time after the feeding of the borax to the young

men, so that there is a

cumulative effect of borax upon the system?

DR. WILEY: I referred to that yesterday, and I will

restate it. Professor

Rost, of the imperial board of health of Berlin, whose

work I have here,

criticized our work because we said that practically

all of the borax was

eradicated from the body after ten days. He contends

that a lot of it remains in

there for a longer time and comes out in the waste

material a little at a time

for weeks and months, so that his testimony is very

much more in favor of the

cumulative effects of those substances than our own.

MR. TOWNSEND: Have you tested for that?

DR. WILEY: We have made some tests on that during

this last winter, but I

have not as yet collated and studied the data.

MR. MANN: Does your report show that in your

opinion the use of borax has a

deleterious effect upon the organs of the body?

DR. WILEY: Of course you understand, Mr. Mann, the

tests that we have made

are not the same as those made upon animals fed for

pharmacological experiments,

because after a given time the animals are killed and

their organs are examined,

and the changes in the cells are studied by the

microscope. We were precluded

from doing that.

MR. MANN: Is that your conclusion?

DR. WILEY: My conclusion is that the cells must

have been injured, but I had

no demonstration of it, because I could not kill the

young men and examine the

kidneys.

MR. MANN: Your judgment was that the borax was

excreted from the body; it did

not remain, but that the effects did remain? How else

could the effect remain

excepting in some way affecting the organs of the

body?

DR. WILEY: I think it must have affected the organs

of the body. I think that

is conclusive proof of it.

MR. ADAMSON: Is the process of resolving these

foods into their original

elements so difficult that scientists cannot furnish

the people any practical

method of safely separating preservatives from food

when they get ready to use

them?

DR. WILEY: It is quite impractical to separate the

whole of any preservatives

from food, though it probably can be done.

MR. MANN: Does it make any difference how borax is

administered, whether

administered by itself or administered in connection

with foods, and is there a

difference in the effect between the administration of

a preservative in milk or

in some kind of solid food, for instance?

DR. WILEY: The ideal way to administer substances

of this kind would be in

solution in the food. But that has such practical

difficulties that in almost

all pharmacological experiments like these which have

been performed by the

thousand in the world, the method which we finally

adopted as the best has been

adopted--that is, the introduction of the substance

into the stomach in the form

of capsules, where nature quickly mixes it entirely up

with the contents of the

stomach.

MR. MANN: Do not some scientists think that there

is a difference in effect

whether it is administered in one food or another?

DR. WILEY: That is the objection I have seen in

scientific publications and

in the public press urged against our work by Mr. H.

H. Langdon, who has written

a great many letters condemnatory of the work. Mr.

Langdon, as I have learned,

is employed by the borax company to do this work. He

has called attention to

that point in the public press.

Many poetic descriptions of the poison squad were

published, among the best

of which are the following by S. W. Gillilan and Lew

Dockstader:

 

THE SONG OF THE POISON SQUAD

(Respectfully Dedicated to the Department of

Agriculture)

By S. W. GILLILAN

0 we're the merriest herd of hulks

that ever the world has seen;

We don't shy off from your rough

on rats or even from Paris green:

We're on the hunt for a toxic dope

That's certain to kill, sans fail.

But 'tis a tricky, elusive thing and

knows we are on its trail;

For all the things that could kill

we've downed in many a gruesome wad,

And still we're gaining a pound a day,

for we are the Pizen Squad.

On Prussic acid we break our fast;

we lunch on a morphine stew;

We dine with a matchhead consomme,

drink carbolic acid brew;

Corrosive sublimate tones us up

like laudanum. ketchup rare,

While tyro-toxicon condiments

are wholesome as mountain air.

Thus all the " deadlies " we double-dare

to put us beneath the sod;

We're death-immunes and we're proud as proud--

Hooray for the Pizen Squad!

 

As Sung by Lew Dockstader--

in His Minstrel Company

Washington, D. C., week of October 4, 1903

If ever you should visit the Smithsonian Institute,

Look out that Professor Wiley doesn't make you a

recruit.

He's got a lot of fellows there that tell him how

they feel,

They take a batch of poison every time they eat a

meal.

For breakfast they get cyanide of liver, coffin

shaped,

For dinner, undertaker's pie, all trimmed with

crepe;

For supper, arsenic fritters, fried in appetizing

shade,

And late at night they get a prussic acid lemonade.

(Chorus)

They may get over it, but they'll never look the

same.

That kind of a bill of fare would drive most men

insane.

Next week he'll give them moth balls,

a LA Newburgh, or else plain.

They may get over it, but they'll never look the

same.