ioo SCIENCE PROGRESS 



The French work on Tellier says : 



" La voie etait ouverte aux initiatives, pour recolter l'ample 

 moisson semee par le genie francais. Qui allait en profiter ? 



" Ce furent les Anglais, qui, avec leur tenacite et leur splen- 

 dide esprit de suite, reprirent la question." l 



The significance of Tellier's experiment lies in the fact 

 that a clear demonstration was made of the possibility of 

 transporting food substances over long distances and that 

 these distances might be unlimited. It is only natural that 

 such a realisation should cause considerable commotion in the 

 financial and commercial world. It is regrettable that the 

 scientific aspect should have been entirely neglected, because 

 development indicates clearly that the progress has been 

 determined by successful financial ventures, and not on account 

 of advances in science, and this unfortunate lack of balance 

 between commercial and scientific development is probably 

 responsible for the stagnation in the subject. 



This may perhaps be better realised if one compares the 

 meat industry with an industry originating at much the same 

 time, the electrical industry. The basis of this industry is 

 entirely the work of a few distinguished scientific men, but 

 the whole development in the electrical industry gives clear 

 evidence of an harmonious interplay between scientific work 

 and financial venture. 



The transport of meat in the frozen condition as distin- 

 guished from the merely chilled state, commenced in 1879, 

 when the first shipment of frozen mutton was sent to Britain 

 from New Zealand. 



Yet, although the importation of frozen meat characterises 

 the beginning of an entirely new epoch, it was initiated rather 

 as a successful venture, and further development has depended 

 on further successful ventures. Failures led, not to scientific 

 investigations into the causes of failure, but to the banning of 

 the experiment. 



In the introduction of freezing as a method of food pre- 

 servation, a method which involved physical changes of state 

 in the material preserved, a scientific investigation should 

 have been undertaken at once to determine how far the changes 

 taking place on freezing could be made reversible on thawing, 



1 Compte rendu officiel de la Manifestation Internationale en VHonneur de 

 Charles Tellier ' P!>re du Froid,' Paris, 191 3. 



