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the British House of CommoiiSj " appointed to inquire into the 

 contractSj and the mode of making them, for the supply of meat 

 provisions for the use of Her Majesty's Navy from the year 184& 

 to 1851, inclusive, and to the rejection of preserved meats ; and 

 into the causes which have led to the receiving into the govern- 

 ment stores, and to the issuing for the use of Her Majesty's ships 

 on foreign service, certain preserved meats, which have proved 

 to be unfit for human food ; and into the means by which an oc- 

 currence so prejudicial to the public service may most efiectuallj 

 be prevented." 



In this examination Thos. T. Grant, Esq., comptroller of 

 the victnalling department of the Navy, testifies that a com- 

 complaint was made in November, 1851, from a vessel on the 

 West India station^, " that the salt meat issued to the crew of Her 

 Majesty's ship Alarm," invariably weighing considerably less 

 than half its original weight after boiling, more particularly the 

 beef, four-pound pieces of which seldom weigh more than front 

 one pound two ounces to one pound and a quarter ; one piece 

 yesterday, with two bones in^ it, actually only weighing nine oun- 

 ees, as noted in the log.j I beg leave to state to you, that every 

 care being taken not to boil the meat longer than is absolutely 

 necessary, the surveying officers, the senior lieutenant and master, 

 are of opinion that this enormous shrinkage is attributable to th« 

 old and inferior quality of the meat ; the beef we are at present 

 using is dated October 1847, and was received from Halifax vic- 

 tualling depot, on the 15th day of September, 1851 ; the pork 

 was^examined January 1850, and was received from the Jamaica 

 victualling depot, on the 28th day of February, 1851, &c.,&c.y 

 Mr. Grant states that this '' must have been vevj old meat which 

 had been left in the depot in Halifax Yard, and had been subject 

 to a tropical climate for a cousiderable time, and we find that un- 

 der those circumstances meat will lose at least one-half, and even: 

 more than that from being exposed to the climate, and being sub- 

 ject to the influence of the pickle, Tlie earliest eomplaint^ so far at 

 I have been able to ascertain, that was made upon this subject, 

 was in 1783, in that year there were several complaints made by 

 the seamen of the different ships, of the shrinkage of the meat 

 after boiling, and the Admiralty of the day directed that experl- 

 menis should be made at the Deptfor d yard for the purpose of as- 



