NEW PROCESS OF PRESERVING MEAT.

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1540, 18 May 1882, Page 4

NEW PROCESS OF PRESERVING MEAT.

A demonstration of a new method (under Jones' patent) of meat preservation was given on March 6th, at York Terrace, Regents Park. That which is peculiar to the system may be stated in a few words. Instead of steeping the dead meat in an antiseptic, the preservative chemical is introduced into the live animal, and by the action of tiie heart is sent through the blood vessels and capillaries into every part of the body. The invention promises to effect a much-needed change in the slaughterhouses, and to lead to the killing of sheep in at least as humane and painless a manner as is according to high authoritity, that by which bullocks are slaughtered. The operation was performed under the direction of Mr YV. L. Strong, Mr Hardvvicke, and Colonel Harger. The sheep, which was first stunned by a smart blow on the head, given with a wooden mallet, showed no signs, of consciousness or sensibility throughout the operation. Mr W. Hunting, a veterinary surgeon, laid bare the left jugular vein, and using an oidinary surgical trocar and canula, drew off about a pint of blood. The preservative chemical, dissolved iv warm water and kept at blood-heat by a hot waterjacket surrounding the tin can in which it was held, was then allowed to flow through an indiarnbber tube placed to the orifice of the canula into the \ein, about U\o pints being thus injected. Aa soon as the charge had run into the animal, the canula was plugged, and about two minutes Aveie allowed for the injected fluid to pass thiough the whole vascular system. The sheep was then stuck by a butcher in the ordinary way. Another sheep was then •jimilaily tieated, the whole operation in each case occupying from four to five minutes from the time the animal was stunned until it was carried out dead. When 1 , however, a number of sheep were icady tor killing in a pioperly constructed hkuightci hou^c, tin- time could be appreciably shortened. Mr Shoather, a veterinary burgeon, on w hose premises the demonstration was given, watched the effect of the operation on the pulse of the second sheep. A harder blow having been stiuck than m the first case, the heart had nearly stopped, and it was tor a, moment feared that the operation might fail, the complete permeation of the tissues with the preservative depending upon the pumping action of the heart. From 120 beats per minute the pulse rose during the loss of blood to about 150, the aitery being flaccid. When the injection of the fluid began, the pulse fell suddenly, probably from the can having been held too high and the weight of the column of liquid consequently interfering with the action of the heart, and the beats were about 48 per minute. There was a gradual rise to 72, and then to 150, the artery now being small and hard. The antiseptic used is boracic acid, which, it is said, does not in the slightest degree affect the flavor or quality of the meat, while the results of experiments show that meat thus treated will in this country keep perfectly good without the tise of ice or refrigerators for five or six weeks in bummer, and two or three months in cold Aveather. The cost of the chemical, it is stated, would be at the outside 4d or 5d a shoep, and the only apparatus required would be a tank in which by means of a sand-bath the boracic acid would be Kept at blood heat ready for use when killing was going on.

"The bigger the book the more the mistakes, !" said the sage. A certain gentleman recently lost his wife, and a young miss of six years who came to the funeral said to his little daughter of about the &ameagc : "Your pa will marry again, wont he ?' 'Oh, yes was the reply, 'but not till after funeral. "(Inn vt actress and famous beauty ?" quoth an American citizen on Saturday night, after a visit to a certain theatre. "Bigactiess and famous beauty ? Look at her arms. They tell you that her true vocation in life was to chase a red flannel shirt up and down a wash-board for eight or nine hours aday. Actress and beauty ! Not in the State of New Jersey she wouldn't be thought.' 1 A Mkkiiy Fcjxeral. — " peath," said Genius, in the person of M. Victor Hugo, the other day, "is a boon, and tlu> leward of man for the good he has done during his life." A philosopher has just died at Venteuil, in France, who, whatever may have been his views concerning the advantages of dissolution, was strongly impressed (writes the London Standaid of March 3) with the absurdity of people regretting their deceased friends, or thinking it necessary to wear a solemn countenance on the clay of the funeral. When he found that the time had come for him to take the long voyage, he determined to be true to the theories he had always upheld, and the last injunctions left by him were, "Let my funeral be a merry one." His wishes, says an Epernay journal, were scrupulously respected, and the instructions ■written by himself as to the manner of his interment strictly followed, in spite of the fact that they were diametrically opposed to all notions of decorum 'and piopriety. The burial was, of course, a civil one. Those who took part in ithe ceremony were absolutely forbidden to shed' teai's," or to" wear, a" long ' face-} and , one or two of the deceased's intimate friends were appointed by him to see that this regulation was not , infringed. To* induce the mourners to be merry, a choral , society was engaged, with orders to enliven the proceedings with a selection of the merriest; songs v .and, the, (50 ( 500 s persons' who I 'accompanied i the' defunct philosopher to the grave were regaled with wine in abundance previous .to starting. 'When the coffin had "Keen lowered into the ground, the ,'.'Marseillaise" <was' sung, "a bbttle ooff f 'cliampague was uncorkejl and emptied into, the grave, after which, in compliance with the deceased's last wishes, a oanquet was held, at which all' His frieifdsf 'and relatives were present. So the day ended merrilyi 'according to his idesireijvbut if He } hoped to' ''introduce vfche* fashion' r of iconyivial fuheralsah 'France, ..even ,lamdtigBt)< Freethink'ersiike •hiinself ,\ ithis" eccentcipr inhabitant l o£iVlenteuil ,was; shappily.i mxtui , ,'7i:'f/ ' ,y:t *