170 



BKINE, THE UTILIZATION OF. 



congregations at Santa Isabel, with about 400 mem- 

 bers ; Santa Leopoldina, with TOO members ; hio 

 Novo, with 90 members, and Philadelphia. There is 

 also a congregation of Hollanders, which is served 

 by a German pastor. 



In the province of Sao Paulo there are German 

 Protestants at 5 different places ; but very little has 

 as vet been done in point of organization. 



Ihe province of Santa Catharina has 4 German 

 , eongregations Donaa Francisca, with 3,000 Protes- 

 tants j Bluinenan, with 2,000, and the two adjoining 

 colonies, Theresopolis and Santa Isabel, together 

 with 1,100 Protestants. 



The largest Protestant German congregation of 

 Brazil is at Sao Leopoldo, in the province Rio 

 Grande de Sul. Sao Leopoldo consists of several 

 colonies, situated at some distance from each other 

 on a road cut into the forest, and has a population 

 of more than 12,000 inhabitants, and 3 Protestant 

 ministers. 



Besides the places enumerated, there are a number 

 of others which have the nucleus of Protestant con- 

 gregations. Altogether, there are in Brazil 24 pas- 

 tors (3 English, 5 Americans, 16 Germans) in 25 con- 

 gregations (3 English, 5 American, 17 German). 



BRINE, THE UTILIZATION or. When fresh 

 meat has been sprinkled with salt for a few 

 days, it is found to be swimming in brine. 

 Fresh meat contains more than three-fourths 

 of its weight of water, which is retained in it 

 as in a sponge. But it has not the power to 

 retain brine to that extent, and, in similar cir- 

 cumstances, absorbs only about half as much 

 saturated brine as water ; under the action of 

 salt, therefore, flesh allowed a portion of its 

 water to flow out. This expelled water, as 

 might naturally be supposed, is saturated with 

 the soluble, nutritive ingredients of flesh, 

 which is, in fact, juice of flesh soup with 

 all its valuable and restorative properties. In 

 the large curing establishments of cities con- 

 siderable quantities of this brine are produced 

 and thrown away as useless. A process of 

 dialysis has recently been successfully applied 

 to this material for the removal of the salts of 

 brine and for the production at a cheap rate 

 of pure fresh extract of meat. A Mr. White- 

 law, of Glasgow, has introduced the process 

 with success. 



The brine, after being filtered to free it 

 from any particles of flesh or other mechanical 

 impurities it might contain, is then subjected 

 to the operation of dialysis. The vessels or 

 bags in which the operations are conducted 

 may be made of various materials and of many 

 shapes, but whatever might be their material 

 or shape they are called " dialysers." Such 

 an apparatus as the following would be found 

 to answer the purpose : A square vat, made of 

 a frame-work of iron, filled up with sheets of 

 skin or parchment-paper in such a way as to 

 Ve water-tight, and strengthened if necessary 

 by stays or straps of metal. The sides, ends, 

 and bottom being composed of this soft, dia- 

 lysing material, exposed a great surface to the 

 a ( -tion of the water contained in an outer vat, 

 in which the dialyser was placed. A series of 

 ox-bladders, fitted with stop-cocks, or gutta- 

 percha mouth-tubes, and plugs, and hung on 

 rods stretching across and into vats of water, 



is found to be a very cheap and effective ar- 

 rangement. Skins of animals may also be em- 

 ployed, either as open bags or closed, and fitted 

 with stop-cocks, or bags of double cloth, with a 

 layer of soft gelatine interspersed between 

 them. Other arrangements will readily sug- 

 gest themselves, and may be adopted according 

 to circumstances. But supposing the bladder 

 arrangement were taken, which will be found 

 practically the best, being cheap, easily man- 

 aged, and exposing a great surface to the dia- 

 lytic action. The bladders are filled with the 

 filtered brine by means of fillers, and hung in 

 rows on poles across, and suspended into vats 

 of water. The water in those vats is renewed 

 once a day, or oftener if required, and at the 

 end of the third or fourth day, according to 

 the size of the bladders employed, almost all 

 the common salt and nitre of the brine has 

 been removed, and the liquid contained in 

 the bladders is pure juice of flesh in a fresh 

 and wholesome condition. The juice as ob- 

 tained from the "dialysers," might now be 

 employed in making rich soups without any 

 further preparation, or it might be concen- 

 trated by evaporation to the state of solid 

 extract of meat. The liquid from the dialysers 

 might be treated in several ways. It might be 

 evaporated in an enamelled vessel to a more or 

 less concentrated state, or to dryness, and in 

 these various conditions packed in tins or jars 

 for sale. It might be concentrated at a temper- 

 ature of 120, by means of a vacuum-pan or 

 other suitable contrivance, so as to retain the 

 albumen and other matters in a soluble form. 

 Again, the more or less concentrated liquid 

 might be used along with flour used in the 

 manufacture of meat biscuits. The products 

 are all highly nutritive, portable, and admirably 

 adapted for the use of hospitals, for an army 

 in the field, and for ships' stores. The dialysis 

 of brine might be conducted in salt water, so 

 as to remove the greater portion of its salt, 

 and the process completed in a small quantity 

 of fresh rain or other water. In this way 

 ships at sea might economize their brine, and 

 so restore to the meat in a great measure the 

 nutritive power that it had lost in the process 

 of salting. Thus, then, Mr. Whitelaw ob- 

 tained an extract of flesh at a cheap rate, from 

 a hitherto waste material. Two gallons of 

 brine yielded one pound of solid extract, con- 

 taining the coagulated albumen and coloring 

 matter. For the production of the same di- 

 rectly from meat, something like twenty 

 pounds of lean beef Avould be required. The 

 quantity of brine annually wasted was very 

 great. He believed he was considerably under 

 the truth when he said that in Glasgow alone 

 sixty thousand gallons were thrown away 

 yearly. If they estimated one gallon as equal 

 to seven pounds of meat in soup-producing 

 power, then this was equal to a yearly waste 

 of one hundred and eighty-seven tons of meat 

 without bone. Estimating the meat as worth 

 sixpence per pound, this amounted to a loss 



