242 OLEOMARGARINE. 



oleomargarine. Another guinea pig inoculated with a sample (No. 1) 

 of oleo oil, taken from a lot used in the manufacture of oleomargarine, 

 died within three weeks, the autopsy showing badly congested lungs, 

 liver dark, blood vessels congested, and the small intestines containing 

 bloody mucus." 



Mr. SPRINGER. Would not the effect have been the same if you had 

 inoculated these animals with creamery butter ? 



Mr. KAUFFMAN. No, sir. Now, I submit, Mr. Chairman, that if 

 oleomargarine bought in the open market has that effect upon guinea 

 pigs it will have the same effect upon human beings. 



Mr. MILLER. May I ask a question ? 



Mr. KAUFFMAN. Certainly, sir. 



Mr. MILLER. How about the 150,000 people who die every year 

 from tuberculosis, and how about the large number of cases where it 

 is caused from eating butter and drinking milk, and so forth ? 



Mr. KAUFFMAN. I will answer that question. How about the large 

 number of people who die from diseases that come from eating oleo- 

 margarine when they do not know anything about it? 



Mr. MILLER. There are none. 



Mr. KAUFFMAN. None? [Laughter.] There are lots of people who 

 die every year of tapeworm and similar diseases transmitted by 

 oleomargarine. 



Mr. MILLER. Mr. Kauffman, do you not know that the oleo oil and 

 neutral lard of which butterine is composed are heated to such a tem- 

 perature that it kills the germs? Do you know that? 



Mr. KAUFFMAN. No, sir; I do not know that, because it is a cold 

 process. 



Mr. MILLER. Well, Professor Wiley, of the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment, says it is true. He ought to know. I think he is an authority; 

 don't you? 



Mr. KAUFFMAN. Well, Professor Heffman, of Philadelphia, who is 

 equally an authority, says just the opposite that the process is con- 

 ducted at such a comparatively low temperature that it does not kill 

 the germs. And that is one of the difficulties in the manufacture. It 

 is a cold process. Why, the very process you start from is a cold 

 process, and you do not heat the materials above 120 Fahrenheit. 



Mr. MILLER. Well, we have to take the opinion of the man who is 

 considered the best scientist in the United States. 



Mr. KAUFFMAN. Now, let me say another thing, Mr. Chairman. 

 When the opinions of chemists are given we must remember that 

 chemists are not physiologists. Chemists can tell you what the con- 

 stituent parts of oleomargarine are; but not being physicians, they are 

 not competent to tell what the physiological action of oleomargarine 

 is. Now, then, we have in Philadelphia a chemist, Professor Heffman, 

 who is both a physician and a chemist, and he says that the question 

 of the healthfulness of oleomargarine is as yet undetermined. He is 

 both a chemist and a physician. The fact of the matter, then, is that 

 the best that can be said about the healthfulness of oleomargarine 

 to-day is that it is not yet determined positively. The facts are that 

 the opinions of chemists, as a rule, as presented by oleomargarine fac- 

 tories, are based upon samples of the very best oleomargarine they 

 produce, and it is not the ordinary oleomargarine that is sold in the 

 market. Therefore that accounts for the difference between certain 

 statements. When the oleomargarine men want to have a nice state- 



