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SAN ANTONIO
MEDICINE

At the time, a typical day’s meals contained the butcher’s floor. The meatpackers’ fight to David Schulz is a community
overly ample amounts of borax, alum, salicylic keep it from publication is a turning point in member of the BCMS Publications
acid (not acetylsalicylic), sodium sulfite, coal- the struggle. They focused on accusations of Committee.
tar-dyes, benzoic acid, saltpeter, sulfuric acid, “fake news,” threatening to sue publishers.
formaldehyde, copper, methyl alcohol and bo- Doubleday and the Chicago Tribune
“I WONDER WHAT’S IN IT”
racic acid. More than forty doses of unregu- launched their own investigation, much to the
We sit at a table delightfully spread
lated chemicals and dyes would be consumed meatpackers chagrin: it showed the book was And teeming with good things to eat.
in a day. understatement. “Both men returned dis- And daintily finger the cream-tinted bread,
No food was untainted: “Dairymen, espe- gusted and horrified by what they’d seen.” Just needing to make it complete
A film of the butter so yellow and sweet,
cially those serving crowded American cities The case for regulation is also seen as a drive
Well suited to make every minute
in the nineteenth century, learned that there to limit freedoms, an immensely powerful ar- A dream of delight. And yet while we eat
were profits to be made by skimming and wa- gument. It took an equally powerful organiza- We cannot help asking, “What’s in it?”
tering down their product. The standard tion and unlikely hero to assure the passage of
Oh, maybe this bread contains alum or
recipe was a pint of lukewarm water to every the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, also
chalk
quart of milk—after the cream had been known as “Wiley’s Law” – the American Or sawdust chopped up very fine
skimmed off. To improve the bluish look of Medical Association (AMA). Or gypsum in powder about which they
talk,
the remaining liquid, milk producers learned The AMA was determinedly nonpolitical
Terra alba just out of the mine.
to add whitening agents such as plaster of Paris and less interested in food safety than in the And our faith in the butter is apt to be weak,
or chalk. Sometimes they added a dollop of problem of snake-oil medicines, but the two For we haven’t a good place to pin it
molasses to give the liquid a more golden, issues were bonded together in the law which Annato’s so yellow and beef fat so sleek
Oh, I wish I could know what is in it.
creamy color. To mimic the expected layer of was bottled in committee. The AMA threat-

cream on top, they might also add a final ened Finance Committee-chair Senator Nel- The pepper perhaps contains cocoanut
squirt of something yellowish, occasionally son Aldrich to rally all 135,000 physicians in shells,
pureed calf brains.” the country, “including all of those located in And the mustard is cottonseed meal;
And the coffee, in sooth, of baked chicory
“Flour” was routinely extended with the senator’s home state, to get the bill passed.
smells,
crushed stone or gypsum. Brown sugar con- The doctors would, if need be, contact every And the terrapin tastes like roast veal.
tained ground insects. “Coffee” was anything patient, county by county.” The wine which you drink never heard of a
grape,
but: More than 80-percent of ground coffee In the end, it was by virtue of President
But of tannin and coal tar is made;
tested was adulterated. “One sample con- Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Rider experience And you could not be certain, except for
tained no coffee at all.” in Cuba that he politically championed Chief their shape,
Wiley’s team also found that processors had Chemist Wiley and his team of “taste testers,” That the eggs by a chicken were laid.
And the salad which bears such an innocent
devised a way to make coffee-free “beans” by AKA, the Poison Squad. We can read labels of
look
pressing a mixture of flour, molasses, and oc- ingredients with some assurance today in large And whispers of fields that are green
casionally dirt and sawdust into molds. Coun- part because of Teddy’s Bully Pulpit and his Is covered with germs, each armed with a
terfeit foods were a major concern in the spice belief that Americans deserved honest food. hook
To grapple with liver and spleen.
industry, where a ground product may hide a But times change, and rules must adapt: A
The banquet how fine, don’t begin it
high-proportion of adulterant. “One New year after the book’s publication, standards for Till you think of the past and the future and
York firm—a purveyor of pepper, mustard, labeling “organic” were finally established. sigh,
“How I wonder, I wonder, what’s in it.”
cloves, cinnamon, cassia, allspice, nutmeg, gin-

ger, and mace—purchased five thousand * All quotes from. The Poison Squad – One HARVEY WASHINGTON WILEY, 1899
pounds of coconut shells a year for grinding Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food
and adding to every spice on that list.” Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, by Read aloud by the author to Congress at
hearings on the Pure Food and Drug Act
America is synonymous with ample meat Deborah Blum, Penguin Publishing Group,
Blum, Deborah. The Poison Squad (pp. xi-xii).
supplies, but Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” 2018, Kindle Edition. Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
dispelled any belief in hygiene or sanitation on

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