File No. 7661/28.
The Acting Secretary of
State to Chargé Wilson.
Department of State,
Washington, November 26,
1907.
No. 146.]
Sir: Referring to your No. 613, of September 25
last, transmitting a sample tin of Underwood’s deviled ham from a lot in
which Argentine officials claimed to have found boric acid in sufficient
quantities to warrant its exclusion from Argentina, I inclose herewith a
copy of a letter from the Secretary of Agriculture regarding the
analysis made by his department of the contents of the tin referred
to.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
The Secretary of
Agriculture to the Secretary of
State.
Department of Agriculture,
Office of the
Secretary,
Washington, November 20,
1907.
Sir: Under date of the 2d instant I
acknowledged receipt of your letter transmitting a copy of a
dispatch from the legation at Buenos Aires, and inclosing a
[Page 36]
small tin of Underwood’s
deviled ham which is supposed to represent the lot in which a
chemist at Buenos Aires has claimed to find boric acid.
I have had very careful examinations made of the meat in this tin,
and the results are the same as those reported to you in my letter
of October 26, 1907, after an examination of one of the larger tins
of the same product. Boric acid is present in the meat, but only in
the most minute traces, the amount being entirely too small to
warrant the belief that this could have been added to the product at
any time during the course of its preparation. The amounts of boric
acid are only such as might be normally present in the spices and
salts which are properly used in preparing deviled ham.
I have, etc.,
