BORIC ACID AND BORAX. 19 



consume probably over two hours, making a total of not to exceed six hours' service 

 per month. 



In this connection, I beg to suggest that the Surgeon-General arrange with Dr. 

 H. W. Wiley, the Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, for the details of these 

 examinations. 



The following reply was received to the above communication: 



I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your communication of January 28, 

 1903, requesting that the Surgeon-General of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital 

 Service be asked to detail a physician from his staff to make physical and medical 

 examinations of the young men employed in your Department in testing the effect 

 of preservatives upon the health of the consumer. 



In reply I have to inform you that your communication has been forwarded to the 

 Surgeon-General of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service, who informs me 

 that he will detail Asst. Surg. Gen. H. D. Geddings to make the desired examina- 

 tions. 



The Surgeon-General further informs me that he has communicated with Proi. 

 H. W. Wiley, the Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry of your Department, and that 

 Doctor Geddings has been instructed to arrange details with Professor Wiley in the 

 matter. 



In harmony with the above arrangement Doctor Geddings regularly 

 visited the young men under experiment once a week, giving them a 

 careful physical examination, inquiring in regard to symptoms of any 

 disturbances in their physical state, and prescribing for them when 

 they fell ill, either incidentally to their work or independently thereof. 

 Before this time, however, during the first table, the medical examina- 

 tion was made by Dr. E. B. Behrends. Unfortunately, in several 

 cases, the members of the training table suffered severely from colds, 

 influenza, and grippe to such an extent that their services were often 

 lost during a whole period. These cases of illness, not due to the 

 action of the preservatives, are duly noted in the proper places in the 

 details of the experimental work. 



Doctor Geddings classified and arranged his notes respecting the 

 various members of the table, and the data obtained by him are incor- 

 porated in this report. 



EXAMINATION OF THE BLOOD. 



Any changes which might take place in the relative number of cor- 

 puscles in the blood, or in the blood coloring matter, are of value in 

 determining the general effect of the added preservatives upon health 

 and digestion. To determine these the ordinary methods of counting 

 the blood corpuscles and measuring the coloring matter in the blood 

 were followed. Valuable help in the initiation of this work was obtained 

 from Dr. William B. French and Dr. J. H. McCormick. The actual 

 examination of the blood, for the purposes mentioned, was conducted 

 by Messrs. B. J. Howard and C. P. Knight. The examination of the 

 blood was not made at the beginning of the work, and so these obser- 

 vations do not cover the whole time of the experiment. 



