File No. 7661/34.
The Acting Secretary of
State to Chargé Wilson.
Department of State,
Washington, December 19,
1907.
No. 151.]Sir: Referring to your dispatch No. 638, of the
6th ultimo, transmitting a copy of the Boletin del Ministerio de
Relaciones Exteriores containing correspondence between the Argentine
Government and the British legation in regard to the presence of boric
acid in imported animal food products, and to previous correspondence
arising from the rejection by the Argentine officials of some shipments
of Underwood’s deviled ham, I inclose herewith for your information and
for communication to the Argentine Government a copy of a letter from
the Secretary of Agriculture concerning the methods of testing for boric
acid used by the departments of agriculture of the United States and the
Argentine Republic.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
The Secretary of
Agriculture to the Secretary of
State.
Department of Agriculture,
Washington, December 10,
1907.
Sir: I beg to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter of the 4th instant, inclosing a copy of a dispatch from
the legation at Buenos Aires and a copy of the Boletin del
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, No. 107, with a translation of
the same. After looking over the methods described in the Bulletin
referred to we do not find that the methods used by the Argentine
Republic are more delicate than those regularly in use in this
department. It appears from their reports, however, that they are
content to secure a qualitative test for boric acid and that they do
not regularly attempt a quantitative determination. The qualitative
tests for boric acid are extremely delicate, and this substance is
found widely distributed in nature, especially in salt. It is
therefore likely that the officials of the Argentine Republic would
find boric acid present in
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most foodstuffs to which salt had been added. This would not mean
that boric acid had been added as a preservative, however, nor that
more than a trace of this substance was present in the food.
I have, etc.,
