POPULAR SCIENCE 



SOME SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF 

 COLD STORAGE 



By INGVAR JORGENSEN, Cand. Phil. (Copenhagen), D.I.C., 

 Research Worker for Food Investigation Board, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, 



AND 



WALTER STILES, M.A. (Cambridge), 



Lecturer in Botany, University of Leeds ; Research Worker for Food Investigation Board, 

 Department of Scientific and Industrial Research 



PART II 



In the previous article we dealt with the cold storage of fruit 

 in order to demonstrate the type of cold storage in which no 

 physical alterations of the material take place. We indicated 

 that at present the cold storage of fruit does not allow much 

 variation in method, but it should be realised that the main 

 hindrance at present is the elementary state of plant physio- 

 logical knowledge. When the physico-chemical aspect of 

 metabolism in fruits has been subjected to an adequate inves- 

 tigation it will no doubt be found that considerable variation 

 will be possible in regard to industrial methods. 



In the present article we propose to consider especially the 

 cold storage of meat, a question of the highest industrial im- 

 portance and scientific interest, which introduces us to the 

 second class of substances, those which can be preserved in the 

 frozen condition. Nevertheless, large quantities of meat are 

 also preserved at temperatures about o° C, by which no great 

 change in physical state is produced. 



The possibility of the preservation of flesh foods by the 

 use of low temperatures has been recognised and employed 

 to some extent for hundreds and thousands of years by the 

 inhabitants of cold countries, where by freezing meat and 

 game in ice under natural conditions these food substances 

 have been preserved for long periods. 



The extreme case of this is that of the mammoth l and 



1 C. Lyell, Principles of Geology, vol. i. p. 182, London, 1872. 



98 



