

PAKIS. 



617 



Baiting the meat to a smaller degree, suf- 

 ficiently, however, to preserve it for a consid- 

 erable time, and it formed a satisfactory mean 

 between the fresh and salt provisions. Other 

 works were established in the neighborhood 

 of the slaughter-house of La Villette, the staff of 

 which was brought from Ireland. The animals 

 were allowed to rest some time before being 

 slaughtered, and after they had been killed 

 the greatest care was taken to prevent any 

 germ of decomposition being deposited upon 

 them. 



The meat was first dried by a moderate 

 salting, and salt was also placed in incisions, 

 which were made in the thickest parts ; it 

 was then placed in the curing-house, where 

 the temperature was maintained below ten de- 

 grees centigrade by means of ice. These two 

 modes of salting were applied to the best of 

 the cattle and the horses, but they were not 

 found suitable for mutton, which adds to the 

 salt a large quantity of liquid, and completely 

 destroys the meat. For preserving mutton 

 the process of M. Gorges was employed, which 

 consists in submitting the meat, after it has 

 been cut in pieces, to a bath diluted with 

 chloric acid, and then to a second bath con- 

 taining sulphate of soda. The meat is packed 

 in tin boxes, sprinkled with sulphate of soda ; 

 the boxes are then soldered down. It is the 

 sulphuric acid, generated by the mixture of 

 the acid and the sulphate of soda, that pre- 

 serves the meat. To remove all disagreeable 

 flavors generated by this process it was abso- 

 lutely necessary, before cooking, to soak it for 

 half an hour in lukewarm water, and after- 

 ward to expose it to the air for one or two days. 



The slaughtered animals supplied many val- 

 uable products in addition to their flesh, which 

 it was necessary to turn to account. In the 

 first rank were the bones, of which the greater 

 part are generally sold for utilization in differ- 

 ent branches of industry. When bones are 

 exposed to the action of chlorohydric acid 

 they lose their calcareous element, and there 

 remains only a soft elastic substance, the prim- 

 itive form of bone, that is to say, gelatine. It 

 was a long subject of discussion whether this 

 substance afforded nourishment or not. Some, 

 relying on the fact that it contained fifty per 

 cent, of oxygen, maintained that it would 

 supply the place of meat, while others con- 

 tended that all alimentary value was lost, and 

 brought forward as example instances of ani- 

 mals which had died of inanition, yet had been 

 allowed unlimited quantities of gelatine. 



The general opinion was, that this substance 

 was available for food, but that it did not con- 

 tain sufficient nourishment, when used alone, 

 to support life ; but it was necessary to utilize 

 to the utmost the enormous quantity of bones 

 and cartilage furnished by the animals slaugh- 

 tered during the siege. 



The ministry invited special attention to this 

 question, and four manufactories were put in 

 operation to form the bones into gelatine, and 



to furnish the soup obtained from them for 

 distribution to the poor at the municipal can- 

 teens. The bones were steeped in chlorohydric 

 acid, to which four or five times the quantity 

 of water had been added. The lighter bones 

 lost their calcareous properties in two or 

 three days; the larger and thicker ones re- 

 quired steeping eight or ten days. After being 

 drained and washed, the bones were placed in 

 a weak solution of soda, then washed freely 

 with water, the sulphuric acid preserving them 

 from decomposition. It was unnecessary to dry 

 the softened results. 



MM. Badois and Duchesne, struck with the 

 difficulty of regularly rationing a sufficient 

 quantity of the soup at first made with this 

 material to meet the demands of the people, 

 proposed to manufacture a jelly, which, dis- 

 solved in hot water, would produce immedi- 

 ately, with a saving of time and material, a 

 broth containing the properties of animal and 

 vegetable food. They called it louillon solide. 

 Instead of removing the calcareous portions 

 of the bone by chlorohydric acid, they ex- 

 tracted the animal matter from the bone by 

 means of a digester a process already used 

 by Papin, and brought to perfection by Darcet. 

 The bony tissue was submitted to the action 

 of steam at a little above atmospheric press- 

 ure, to remove in the first place the fat with 

 which it is impregnated, and then the gelati- 

 nous portions which are afterward condensed. 

 This operation could be carried on more 

 rapidly, and the product was purer and less 

 highly-colored, if, instead of steam, hot water 

 was employed, under the necessary pressure. 

 The temperature was raised from 106 to 125, 

 or even 130 centigrade, corresponding to 2-J- 

 and 2 atmospheric pressures. 



The apparatus employed consisted in a cylin- 

 drical digester, twenty- three inches diameter 

 and thirty-nine inches high, revolving hori- 

 zontally upon trunnions ; through one trunnion 

 the steam was brought to the lower part of the 

 apparatus ; by the other trunnion water was 

 introduced, which flowed into the upper part 

 of the machine. The bones, properly washed, 

 were placed in the cylinder; the steam first 

 melts the fat which flows from the lower cock ; 

 water is then introduced, and in a very short 

 time the dissolved gelatine is withdrawn from 

 the same cock ; it is concentrated in a steam- 

 boiler, and mixed with an infusion of celery, 

 or other highly-flavored vegetables. Exposed 

 to the air it solidifies, and in that form is avail- 

 able for canteens or for general sale. Thirty 

 grammes of this concentrated essence, dissolved 

 in a pint of hot water, made a soup sold for five 

 cents at the canteens. The importance of this 

 manufacture of solid soup may be seen from 

 the fact that during the siege of Paris 6,600 

 pounds were daily produced, which afforded 

 200,000 rations of half a pint each. After the 

 Liebig extract was consumed, boxes of the 

 solid soup were much in request, and became 

 an important article of trade. If its flavor and 



