Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts Volume Ii Part 50

The removal, however, of atmospheric air from the vessels containing the meat it is designed to preserve is now princ.i.p.ally accomplished by means of steam. The germ of this idea originated with M. Pierre Antonie Angilbert more than half a century ago, but the modification of Angilbert's process, which in principle is that generally adopted by the importers of Australian and South American _cooked_ meat, as well as by the English preparers of the article, originated with Messrs Goldner and Wertheimer, nearly forty years since, and, briefly, is as follows:--The freshly killed meat is placed in tins, with a certain quant.i.ty of cold water. The tins and their contents are then securely soldered down, with the exception of a small opening not larger than a pin-hole, which is left in the lid. The tins are next placed in a bath of chloride of calcium, the effect of which is to heat the water in them up to the boiling point, and after a certain time to more or less cook the meat contained in them. When the meat is thought to be sufficiently cooked, and whilst the steam arising from the boiling water is escaping from the aperture, this last is carefully soldered down, the steam not only having driven out all the atmospheric air from the vessel, but in the act of escaping having prevented the ingress of any from without. To still further guard against the entrance of air, the tins are covered over with a thick coating of paint.

Previously to their being allowed to leave the preserving works they are tested by being placed for some time in an apartment in which the temperature is sufficiently high to set up putrefactive action in the meat if any air has been left in the tins, the evidence of which would be the bulging out of the tins, owing to the liberation of certain gaseous products of decomposition. When no distension from inside takes place, the result is considered satisfactory, and the vessels are regarded as properly and hermetically sealed. In some cases the vessels, instead of being heated in a bath of chloride of calcium, are exposed to the action of steam. If the operation be successfully performed, the meat so prepared will keep perfectly good avid sound for years.

Mr Richard Jones effects the removal of the air from the vessels containing the meat as follows:--The meat is put into the tins and entirely soldered up, with the exception of a small tube about the size of a quill, which is soldered on the top of the tin. This tube is placed in connection with a vacuum chamber, and the air exhausted from the tin by means of it. In cooking the meat he also employs a chloride of calcium bath.

Dr Letheby, in one of his Canton Lectures on Food, delivered in 1865, speaking on this part of the subject, and on the above method of meat preservation, says:--"To-night, through the kindness of Messrs Crosse and Blackwell, I am able to show you a specimen of preserved mutton which has been in the case forty-four years, and you will perceive that it is in excellent condition. It formed part of the stores supplied by Messrs Donkin and Gamble, in 1824, to His Majesty's Exploring ship _Fury_, which was wrecked in Prince Regent's Inlet in 1825, when the cases were landed with the other stores, and left upon the beach.

"Eight years afterwards, in August, 1833, they were found by Sir John Ross in the same condition as they were left; and he wrote to Mr Gamble at the end of that year, saying, 'that the provisions were still in a perfect state of preservation, although annually exposed to a temperature of 92 below and 80 above zero.' Some of the cases were left untouched by Sir John Ross; and after a further interval of sixteen years the place was visited by a party from Her Majesty's ship _Investigator_, when, according to a letter from the captain, Sir James Ross, 'the provisions were in excellent condition, after having lain upon the beach, exposed to the action of the sun, and all kinds of weather, for a period of nearly a quarter of a century.' Messrs Crosse and Blackwell have placed the original letters in my hands for perusal, and they show beyond all doubt that meat preserved in this manner will keep good for nearly half a century--in fact, the case of boiled mutton now before you has been preserved for forty--four years."

The generality of the samples of preserved meat from Australia are excellent in quality and flavour,[33] except that in most cases the meat has been overcooked, which has arisen from the too prolonged contact of the meat with the steam, which it is judged necessary shall be generated in such quant.i.ties as to ensure the certainty of the exclusion of the air.

Another inconvenience attending the process, viz. the liability of the sides of the tin to collapse, owing to the vacuum formed in its interior, has been remedied by the introduction into the vessel of some inert gas, such as carbonic acid, or nitrogen.

[Footnote 33: The Food Committee of the Society of Arts, who have carefully and impartially examined numerous samples of Australian and South American preserved meat, say: "It is perfectly sweet and fresh, but somewhat insipid from overcooking, and it seems likely the flavour could be improved if the duration of exposure to heat could be shortened without endangering the preservation."]

Preserved meat at the present time forms a very considerable article of export both from Australia and South America. In the former country there are several establishments of a colossal character, where the work of tinning the meat is carried on, in many of which establishments hundreds of cattle are slaughtered daily. The largest establishments of the kind are at Sydney and Melbourne, whence extensive shipments are being constantly made. The following figures are taken from the Board of Trade returns:--

_Value of Meat preserved otherwise than by Salting._

Imports from Total Australia. Imports.

1871 481,093 610,228 1872 657,945 816,463 1873 557,552 733,331 1874 509,698 757,001 1875 249,611 592,196

Since 1876 tinned meat has been imported from North America.

Several methods have been proposed for the preservation of meat by subjecting it to such conditions that the surrounding temperature should be sufficiently low to arrest putrefaction. In Mr Harrison's process the reduction of temperature was effected by the application of melting ice and salt, made to run down the outside of the iron chambers containing the meat. It is affirmed that although the joints submitted to this treatment were solidly frozen, no loss of either flavour or immediate decomposition of the meat took place. Mr Harrison's experiment was perfectly successful in Australia, but broke down during the voyage of a large cargo of meat shipped from Australia in 1873, owing to a defect in the construction of the ice chamber of the vessel and the failure of the supply of ice.

Of other forms of refrigeration applied for this purpose we may mention the process of M. Tellier, by which he proposes to place (on ship-board or elsewhere) joints of meat in a chamber through which a current of air charged with ether or other volatile substance may be pa.s.sed, with a view to reduce the temperature to 30 F. Also that of M. Poggiale, from whose report to the Paris Academy of Medicine it appears that in chambers contrived on principles similar to M. Tellier's, all kinds of butcher's meat and poultry have been hung for ten weeks, at the end of which time they were found perfectly fresh and wholesome. The agent used in the latter case for the production of cold was methylic ether.

The process, however, of refrigeration which has proved not only the most, but in every respect successful, was first satisfactorily carried out since 1876, in which time large cargoes of dead meat have been constantly sent to our metropolitan markets, as well as to Glasgow, from New York.

The following extract from the 'Dundee Advertiser' gives some interesting details of this process:--

"As to dead meat, the first sale was held on the 5th of June, when 100 carcases of beef and 72 of mutton were disposed of. Since then there has never been a smaller supply, and on the average about 150 carcases have been sold weekly. Last week 210 carcases were sold, and on Wednesday evening there were no fewer than 33 lorries, each laden with three tons of butcher's meat. The freight paid for carriage to Glasgow, Liverpool, and London, last week amounted to 1900. Altogether, since the importation began, a million and a quarter pounds of dead meat have been sold in Glasgow. The result of this importation has been a reduction in retail price of 1d. per lb., instead of an increase in price, which must have taken place without the increased supply.

"The oxen are collected chiefly in the states of Illinois and Kentucky.

They are there reared in enormous numbers on the prairies. Before they reach New York they are driven over railway for fully a thousand miles.

Those animals the carcases of which are to be sent to this country are killed the day before the departure of the steamer. As soon as the carcases are dressed they are put into a cooling room capable of containing 500, and subject to a constant current of cold air, supplied by means of a 25 horse-power engine. This sets the beef and extracts the animal heat. Each carcase is next cut into quarters, and these are sewn up in canvas, and during the night transferred on board the vessel. Six of the Anchor Line mail steamers have been fitted up with refrigeration compartments, constructed on a patented principle specially for the conveyance of meat.

"After the quarters have been hung up in the room the door is hermetically closed. Adjoining the compartment is a chamber filled with ice. Air tubes are connected with the beef room, and through them the animal heat ascends, and by means of a powerful engine it is blown across the ice, and returned to the beef room in a cold state. A temperature of about 38 is thus maintained in the beef-room. If it were to get so low as 32--freezing-point--the meat would be seriously injured.[34] The heat is, therefore, regulated by a thermometer, and when the temperature gets too low, the speed of the engine is slackened, the normal degree of cold being thus maintained almost without variation during the voyage. Cattle killed on Thursday in New York are sold that day fortnight in Glasgow."

[Footnote 34: Mr Harrison's experiments make this statement doubtful.]

The first patent for the preservation of food by means of ice was granted to Mr John Ling in 1845.

Lastly, mention must not be omitted of another method for the preservation of meat, which consists in the application to it of certain antiseptic substances, the action of which in preventing putrefaction is due to their power of destroying minute parasitic organisms of low animal or vegetable life, that would otherwise attack and set up decomposition in the meat.

Our ordinary salted meats owe their immunity from decay, as is well known, to the presence in their tissues of common salt. Meat preserved, however, by this means is tough, indigestible, and wanting in many of its most important soluble const.i.tuents, which, dissolving part of the salt, run off from the meat and are lost.

Amongst other agents which have been found serviceable as antiseptics, and for which from time to time numerous patents have been taken out, are nitrate of potash, acetate and hydrochlorate of ammonia, the sulphates of soda and potash, and bisulphate of lime. The writer remembers partaking, some years since, of some Canadian turkey, which had been preserved by means of this latter substance, and the turkey having been killed some two months before being eaten. It was perfectly sound and of excellent flavour. In this instance the bird had been sent from Canada, with several others, packed in waterproof casks, filled up with a weak solution of bisulphite of lime.

In some cases the saline solution is merely brushed over the outside of the meat; whilst in others it is injected into the substance of the flesh.

Thiebierge's process consists in dipping the joints for five minutes into dilute sulphuric acid, of the strength of about ten of water to one of acid. The meat after being taken out is carefully wiped and dried, and is then hung up for keeping.

Sulphurous acid also forms the subject of several patents for the preservation of meat. In the process of Laury, for which a patent was taken out in 1854, the gas was introduced into the vessels containing the food. In that of Belford, for which a provisional specification was granted the same year, the meat was soaked for 24 hours in a solution of sulphurous and hydrochloric acids (the latter being in the proportion of a hundredth of the volume of the former). The addition of the hydrochloric acid was made with the intention of decomposing any alkaline sulphites that might be formed by the combination of the alkaline salts of the meat with the sulphurous acid.

Dr Dewar's process, which is very similar to the foregoing, proposes, instead of exposing the meat to sulphurous acid fumigation, to immerse it in a solution of the acid of the same strength as that of the British Pharmacopia. On being taken out of the liquid the meat, or other article, is, as speedily as possible, dried at a temperature not exceeding 140 F., so that the alb.u.men may be preserved simply in a desiccated, and not in a coagulated condition.

In the patent of Demait, which dates from 1855, the meat was directed to be hung up in a properly constructed chamber, and exposed for some time to the action of the gas. More recently, Professor Gamgee has taken out a patent, which is a modification of Demait's, and which consists in hanging up the carcase of the animal, previously killed when under the influence of carbonic oxide, in a chamber filled with this latter gas, to which a little sulphurous acid has been added, the chamber having been first exhausted of air. The carcase is allowed to remain in the chamber from 24 to 48 hours, after which it is hung in dry air. It is stated that meat subjected to the above treatment has been found perfectly sound and eatable after an interval of five months.

M. Lanjorrois proposes to preserve animal substances from decay by the addition to them of 1 per cent. of magenta. He states the process had been applied to slices of beef, which, after being kept for several months, yielded, after being washed and boiled, very good soup. Commenting on this suggestion for the preservation of meat, the 'Chemical News' very sensibly and properly remarks: "It is to be hoped the magenta employed will be free from a.r.s.enic."

The patent of M. de la Peyrouse (which dates from 1873) also consists in excluding the air by enveloping meat in fat. In this process, however, the fat is mixed, when in a melting condition, with a certain quant.i.ty of the carbonates of sodium, pota.s.sium, and ammonium, as well as with some chlorides of magnesium and aluminium, with the object of preventing the fat becoming rancid and decomposing, and thus imparting a disagreeable flavour to the meat.

In M. George's process the meat is partially dried, and then steeped in successive waters containing hydrochloric acid and sulphate of soda.

=MECON'IC ACID.= H_{3}C_{7}HO_{7}. _Syn._ ACIDUM MECONIc.u.m, L. A peculiar acid, first obtained by Sertuerner from opium, in 1804.

_Prep._ Meconate of lime is suspended in warm water, and treated with hydrochloric acid. Impure meconic acid crystallises on cooling, and may be purified by repeated treatment in the same way with hydrochloric acid. Its purity is ascertained by its leaving no residue when heated in a platinum or gla.s.s capsule.

_Prop._ Meconic acid forms beautiful pearly scales; possesses a sour astringent taste; is soluble in boiling water, and to a less extent in cold; it is also soluble in alcohol. With the acids it forms salts called 'meconates,' most of which are crystallisable. Meconate of lime is obtained by heating a solution of chloride of calcium with an infusion of opium made with cold water, and neutralised by powdered marble, and collecting the precipitate. Meconate of pota.s.sa is prepared by direct solution of the base in the impure acid obtained from meconate of lime till the liquor turns green, heat being applied, when the salt crystallises out as the liquid cools; it may be purified by pressure and recrystallisation.

_Tests._ Meconic acid is characterised by--1. Turning ferric salts red, and the red colour not being destroyed by the action of corrosive sublimate.--2. Precipitating a weak solution of ammonio-sulphate of copper green.--3. With acetate of lead, nitrate of silver, and chloride of barium, it gives white precipitates, which are soluble in nitric acid.--4.

It is not reddened by chloride of gold.

=MEC'ONIN.= C_{10}H_{10}O_{4}. A white, crystalline, odourless, neutral substance, discovered by Couerbe in opium.

=MECO'NIUM.= See OPIUM.

=MED'ICINES.= However skilful the medical pract.i.tioner may be, and however judicious his treatment, both are interfered with, and their value more or less neutralised, if the remedies he orders are not administered precisely according to his instructions. It is the duty of the attendant on the sick to follow implicitly the directions of the physician, as well in exactly complying with his orders as in doing nothing that she has not been ordered to do. At the same time there are exceptions to this rule, in which a suspension of the remedy, or a deviation from the order of the physician, is not only allowable, but is absolutely required. Thus, from idiosyncrasy or some other cause, the remedy in the doses ordered may have no effect, or may produce one widely different from that intended or expected. In such cases it is evident that a strict adherence to the direction of the physician would be productive of evil; but he should be immediately apprised of the circ.u.mstance. The common practice of neglecting to administer the doses of medicine at the prescribed time, or after prescribed intervals, and then, to compensate for the omission, giving the medicine more frequently or in larger doses, cannot be too severely censured, as destructive to the welfare of the patient and injurious to the credit of the physician.

For the purpose of disguising the taste of medicine, or lessening their nauseating properties, Dr Pollio has recommended a means founded on the physiological fact that a strong impression on the nerves (whether of vision, hearing, or taste) renders that which follows less perceptible than under the usual circ.u.mstances. Instead, therefore, of applying to the mouth agreeable substances after swallowing nauseous medicines, we should prepare it beforehand, in order that the taste of the medicine may not be perceived. Aromatic substances, as orange or lemon peel, &c., chewed just before taking medicine, effectually prevent castor oil, &c., being tasted. In preparing the mouth for bitters, liquorice is the only sweet that should be used, the others creating a peculiarly disagreeable compound taste. We have noticed already the effect of oil of orange peel in correcting the nauseating qualities of copaiba. See DOSE and PRESCRIBING.

=MEDICINES FOR Pa.s.sENGER SHIPS.= The annexed scale of medicines, medical stores, and instruments for ships clearing under the Pa.s.sengers Acts, other than steamships engaged in the North Atlantic trade, has been issued and caused to be published by the Board of Trade, and is intended to supersede the scales. .h.i.therto in force.

The quant.i.ties mentioned in the scale are for every 100 pa.s.sengers, when the length of the pa.s.sage, computed according to the Pa.s.sengers Act, is 100 days and upwards. Half the quant.i.ty of medicines indicated, but the same kind and quant.i.ty of medical stores should be taken when the pa.s.sage is less than 100 days.

_N.B.--There is a separate scale for North Atlantic steam pa.s.senger ships._

The medicines are to be prepared according to the British Pharmacopia, to be plainly labelled in English, and the average doses for an adult stated, according to the British Pharmacopia.

All bottles are to be stoppered, and all medicines indicated thus (*) are to be marked with a red poison label. All fluid quant.i.ties are to be measured by _fluid_ lbs., oz., or dr.

Lbs. oz. dr.

Acid, Acetic 0 6 0 *Acid, Carbolic 0 1 0 *Acid, Carbolic (a powder containing not less than 20 per cent. of pure carbolic or cresylic acid) 112 0 0 Acid, Citric 0 3 0 Acid, Gallic 0 1 0 Acid, Hydrocyanic Dil. 0 0 4 Acid, Nitric 0 1 0 Acid, Sulph. Dil. 0 6 0 aether 0 1 0 Alumen 0 1 0 Ammon. Carb. 0 6 0 Amylum 1 0 0 Argent. Nit. (Stick) 0 0 2 Calx Chlorate 7 0 0 Camphor 0 6 0 Charta Epispatica, 4 sq. ft., in case *Chlor. of Zinc (Burnett's sol. of) 16 0 0 *Chloroform 0 8 0 Copaiba 0 8 0 Creosote 0 0 2 Cupri Sulph. 0 1 0 Emp. Cantharidis 0 1 0 Ferri et Quiniae Cit. 0 1 0 Ferri Sulph. 0 0 4 Glycerin 0 6 0 Glycerin Acid. Tannic 0 4 0 *Hydrat. Chloral 0 1 6 Hydrarg. c.u.m Creta 0 0 4 Hydrarg. Subchloridi 0 0 4 Lini Farina 6 0 0 Lin. Camph. 0 8 0 Lin. Opii 0 2 0 Lin. Saponis 1 0 0 *Liq. Atropiae 0 0 1 Liq. Calcis 1 0 0 *Liq. Morphiae Acetatis 0 1 0 *Liq. Plumbi Subacetatis 0 2 0 Liq. Pota.s.sae 0 2 0 *Liq. Pota.s.sae Permanganatis (B. P. or Condy's Crimson Fluid) 3 0 0 Magnes. Sulph. 4 0 0 Mist. Sennae Co. (omit Extract of Liquorice and subst.i.tute Aromatic Spirit of Ammonia, 1 oz. to 1 pint of the mixture) 3 0 0 Ol. Croton 0 0 1 Ol. Lini 0 8 0 Ol. Menthae Pip. 0 0 2 Ol. Morrhuae 3 0 0 Ol. Olivae 1 0 0 Ol. Ricini 2 0 0 Ol. Terebinthinae 1 0 0 *Opium 1 0 0 Plumbi Acetatis 0 1 0 Pota.s.sae Bicarb. Pulv. 0 4 0 Pota.s.sii Iodid. 0 2 0 Pulv. Antimonialis 0 0 3 *Pulv. Astringens (double the quant.i.ty indicated to be taken to all tropical ports.

Pulv. Catechu Co., Pulv.

Cretae Arom. c.u.m Opio--equal parts) 1 0 0 Pulv. Cretae Arom. c.u.m Opio. 0 2 0 Pulv. Ipecac. 0 2 0 Pulv. Ipecac. Co. 0 2 0 Pulv. Jalapae Co. 0 3 0 Pulv. Pota.s.sae Nitratis 0 4 0 Pulv. Rhei Co. 0 4 0 Pulv. Scammon. Co. 0 0 6 Quiniae Sulph. (double the quant.i.ty indicated to be taken to all tropical ports) 0 1 0 Sodae Bicarb. 1 0 0 Sp. aether. Nitrosi 0 8 0 Sp. Ammon. Arom. 0 8 0 Sp. Rectif. 0 4 0 Sp. Sulphur Sublimatum 3 0 0 Syr. Ferri Iodidi 0 4 0 *Sol. Morphiae Acetat. (a neutral solution containing 4 grains in a drachm, and so marked.

To be labelled--for hypodermic injection) 0 0 4 Tr. Arnicae 0 6 0 Tr. Camphorae Co. 0 8 0 Tr. Digitalis 0 0 6 Tr. Ergotae 0 6 0 Tr. Ferri Perchloridi 0 4 0 *Tr. Opii 0 6 0 Tr. Scillae 0 2 0 Tr. Valerian. Ammon. 0 3 0 Ung. Cetacei 1 0 0 Ung. Hydrargyri 0 2 0 Ung. Hydrargyri Ox. Rub. 0 1 0 Ung. Sulph. 1 0 0 Ung. Zinci 0 2 0 Vin. Colchici 0 1 0 Vin. Ipecac. 0 1 0 Zinci Sulphatis 0 1 0 Desiccated Soup 4 0 0

_All pills to be made and marked +5+ grains._ Pil. Aloes c.u.m Myrrha 2 doz.