542 FOODS AND FOOD ADULTERANTS. 



said Fowler Brothers to deliver to complainants a large quantity of prime steam 

 lard, then deliverable on said contracts, which said lard, complainants charge, was 

 not in fact prime steam lard, as required by the rules of the Board of Trade, but was 

 mixed and adulterated by and for said Fowler Brothers, with tallow, beef fat, cotton- 

 seed oil, or other substance different from hog's* lard; which tender was intended by 

 the said Fowler Brothers to deceive, defraud, and cheat complainants by delivering 

 to them a spurious commodity under the brand and name of prime steam lard. 



Third. Complainants charge upon information and belief that the Anglo-American 

 Packing and Provision Company, with the knowledge and consent of said Fowlers, 

 has mantifactured a large quantity of adulterated lard and mixtures which has been 

 sold by said Fowlers to the trade, and to members of the Board of Trade, for prime 

 steam lard, which said adulterated lard is stored in the warehouses under their con- 

 trol, and which transactions complainants charge to be acts of bad faith and dishon- 

 orable and dishonest conduct in business. 



The board of directors have given to the investigation of these charges a very pro- 

 tracted and patient hearing, which in their judgment has been exhausted in develop- 

 ing all the facts attainable in respect to them, and have arrived at the conclusion 

 that they have not been sustained, and have therefore voted that they be dismissed. 



Inasmuch, however, as these charges involve questions of the greatest concern to 

 the members of this association, and to dealers and consumers of pork products, not 

 only throughout our own country but in foreign lands as well, the board of directors, 

 in view of the evidence submitted in this case, both on the part of defendants and 

 for the prosecution, can not, with a due regard to their responsibilities to the public 

 and to the members of this association, refrain from expressing their unqualified dis- 

 approval of and censure upon defendants for the remarkable methods of conducting 

 the business of manufacturing lard in their establishment, as developed by tho evi- 

 dence in this case. It appears, and is admitted, to have been the practice, during at 

 least several of recent months, that beef product in various forms has been rendered 

 in the same tanks and with hog product, this mixed product of certain tanks being 

 conducted through a system of intricate machinery and pipes in which also prime 

 steam lard was at times conveyed to their so-called lard refinery wherein both prime 

 steam lard and the mixed product used for what is called refined lard is drawn off into 

 packages for market ; and this in a manner that by accident or design on the part of 

 tho employe's of the establishment could easily contaminate the purity of their prime 

 steam lard, which miglit thus become more or less adulterated, not only with the beef 

 produce so rendered with a portion of their hog product, but also with the cotton- 

 seed oil and other unknown substances used in the manufacture of their so-called re- 

 fined lard; and this board, in view of tho existing methods of manufacturing prime 

 steam lard in this establishment, recomoiend that, without delay, the parties so re- 

 adjust their lard-manufacturing arrangements that all grounds for suspicion in this 

 respect shall bo effectually removed, and that in case this recommendation is not- 

 promptly complied with to the satisfaction of this board, such action be taken as will 

 relieve this board of all responsibility in respect to such product. 



The board of directors would embrace this occasion to express their gratification 

 that, as the result of this investigation, the question of ascertaining the truth as to 

 adulterations in lard by scientific examination, which has hitherto, to say the least. 

 been ono of extreme difficulty, seems now to givo promise of a satisfactory solution ; 

 and while not desiriug to express absolute confidence in any particular method for 

 determining adulterations by the substances suggested in the charges preferred in 

 this case, tho board feels great encouragement to believe that even small adultera- 

 tions with cotton-seed oil can be detected by some of the methods detailed in tho evi- 

 dence submitted in the case by scientific gentlemen ; and that tho microscope, in the 

 hands of an experienced operator, can bo successfully employed in detecting adul- 

 teration by beef product when it exists to the extent of 10, and probably even a much 

 less percentage. 



