ASTISKP! 



\Vnsi-ASMODIC8. 



tables, promulgated by M. Appert This consuls in boiling the articles 

 (if EMU, the bora mint be flnt taken out) to nearly as great a degree 

 a* if intended for hnmnlisrtT consumption ; they are then put into jan 

 or tin canisters, which must be completely filled with a broth or jelly 

 prepared from portion* of the eame meat The canisters are then 

 corked and oorered with a luting, and carefully eoklered down. After 

 this, they are placed in a boiler of cold water, to which heat u applied 

 Ull the water botl. and the boiling of which u continued for an hour ; 

 the Ore must then be instantly extinguished, and the water eoon drawn 

 off, but the boiler must not be uncovered, or the bottle* taken out, for 

 one or two hour* after. By this method, meat has been kept sound 

 and well-flaroured for many yean, and haa been sent to all part* of the 

 globe. The proem of exhausting the air from the Teasel which con- 

 tains the substance to be preeerred, and then effectually excluding the 

 hnosphme, u a method now frequently used. 



A simpler method of preserving animal food for sea-stores is the 

 following : the meat is cut into slices of four to eight ounces, steeped 

 for fire minutes in a Teasel of boiling water, and dried on a network at 

 a temperature of about ISO* Fahrenheit The liquid or soup formed 

 by steeping the meat is next eraporated to the state of a thick Tarnish, 

 to which a little spice is added. The dry pieces of meat are dipped into 

 this grary and dried again ; and this dipping and drying are repeated 

 two or three times. The meat will in this dry state remain good for a 

 year or two, and may then be cooked in the usual way by boiling, &c. 



The natural methods of preserving organised substances are few and 

 simple ; the artificial more numerous, as well as more complex. They 

 consist either in causing such changes in the elementary constitution of 

 a body as shall form a new and less destructible article, or in intro- 

 ducing some additional principle which shall hinder the exercise of the 

 natural tendency of the substance to decomposition. 



The first set of means constitute the various kinds of fermentation ; 

 with respect to which we may remark, that the products of them are 

 not only little disposed to undergo decomposition, but have also a 

 powerful effect in preventing other substances from undergoing it. 

 The most remarkable of these are acetic acid, or vinegar, and alcohol. 

 The formation of sugar, another product of fermentation, is a powerful 

 mean* of preserving fruits, in which it is formed spontaneously, or to 

 which it U afterwards added. The addition of sugar is practised in 

 forming syrups, jellies, and preserves. 



Those parts of plants which contain much carbon last the longest 

 In trees cut down and exposed to air and moisture, the bark, which 

 contains most carbon, endures after the rest has perished. The seed 

 also contains much carbon, and when seeds are sent from India to 

 England they are generally wrapped in recently prepared charcoal. 

 When stakes or piles of wood are to be driven into the beds of rivers 

 or marshes, they are previously charred ; and to preserve water sent to 

 sea, the inner side of the cask is also charred. 



Reverting to the subject of preserved meats, we may state that the 

 use of such condiments is extending in the English navy ; and although 

 circumstances which occurred a few years ago excited a painful doubt 

 on this subject, nothing has transpired to disprove the excellence of 

 the diet ana the advantage of its adoption, provided common honesty 

 be shown in the manufacture, and common prudence on the part of the 



j . ' ! !- ' - 



Mr. Ooldner, a foreigner resident in England, obtained a patent in 

 1840, for a method of preserving meat, founded chiefly on the plan 

 of Appert In 1844 the Government first entered into a contract with 

 him : and the first supply was obtained from that. source in 1845. 

 The meat was in the first instance used experimentally, and in small 

 quantities ; in 1840 larger quantities began to be sent out in some of 

 the government ships; sod at length in 1847, it became a custom to 

 end out some of these canisters of preserved meat in most of the 

 ships intended for foreign service. Sir John Franklin's arctic expe- 

 dition was furnished with a supply of this kind, at a time when the 

 system was yet in an experimental state. That meat, properly secured 

 in the canisters, will remain good for many years we knew, from the 

 fact that part of the stores left on shore by Sir Edward Parry, when 

 be abandoned his ship, were found in excellent condition '20 years 

 afterwards. Another contract was signed in 1847 ; but in 1848 com- 

 plaints were occasionally made that the meat thus supplied was defective 

 in quality. Stops were taken by the government to ensure, as was 

 supposed, the due fulfilment of the contract ; and a new purchase, to 

 a considerable extent, was made in 1850. A few days before the close 

 of the year 1851, circumstance, occurred to show the necessity for 

 emmtnmg the stores of preserved meat at Portsmouth. The meat had 

 been prepared at OalaU in Moldavia, and packed in canisters con- 

 taining about 10 Iba. each ; and, from the nature of the process, these 

 canisters must not be opened until the meat is required for food, as 

 the admission of air nullifies the antiseptic processes. It was not 

 known, therefore, until the canisters were opened, whether the bulk of 

 the supply corresponded with the samples. When st the close of 

 1851 and the commencement of 1852, it was deemed necessary to open 

 all the canisters then in store, it was found that out of many thousand 

 canisters, only a few hundreds contained food fit to be eaten. We 

 need not further allude to this part of the subject, since it relates to a 

 diahonest evasion of a proper system, and not the real value of the 

 nyitern itself. 



It has been suggested, that the condition of the meat within a 



canister may be judged from the appearance of the canister itaelf. 

 Even supposing the contents of the canister to be good and proper in 

 the first instance, yet if any air gain admittance, a certain extent of 

 decomposition ensues : gas is generated, and this gas causes a bulging 

 or convexity of the canister. If a minute hole be made, by accident 

 or design, or rust, in a canister, the entrance of air will be sufficient to 

 spoil the contents ; and hence it is deemed a wise precaution to paint 

 the canisters externally. 



The manufacture of preserved provision* is now carried on to a very 

 considerable extent Mr. Gamble has still (or had recently) in his 

 possession some of the canisters of boiled mutton which he prepared 

 for Parry's expedition in 1824, which Sir John Ross found in good 

 condition on Fury Beach in 1833, and which Sir James Ross found to 

 be equally good in 1849. Canisters are prepared by Messrs. Donkin, 

 Hall, and Gamble with preserved beef, mutton, Teal, pheasants, part- 

 ridges, turtle, callipash and callipee, hams, salmon, oysters, cod, had- 

 dock, milk, cream, custards, carrots, peas, turnips, mushrooms, turtle- 

 soup, mock -turtle soup, ox-tail soup, and many other kinds of provisions. 

 Messrs. Ritchie and M'Call, and Messrs. Hogarth, similarly prepare 

 meats, poultry, fish, Ac., in canisters. Mr. Broccicrc has a peculiar 

 method of preparing concentrated forms of food from the blood of 

 cattle. Messrs. Leonard, of Hull, practise a system of preparing, curing 

 and rolling beef, so that it may be kept good for any length of time. 

 Mr. Underwood, of Manchester, has a method of preserving meat which, 

 as he states, " is prepared without salt, and may be kept an indefinite 

 length of time without deteriorating its qualities; when cooked, it 

 retains its nutritious qualities, and eats almost as fresh as recently- 

 lulled meat." 



In various colonies and foreign countries, too, analogous processes 

 are carried on. In New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, fresh 

 beef and mutton are excellently preserved for use on ship-board. In 

 New Brunswick, salmon, lobsters, cod, and other kinds of fish are 

 preserved in air-tight canisters ; and similar preparations are made in 

 Nova Scotia. M. Baup, of Vaud, in Switzerland, besides one of the 

 many modes of preserving meat and fish in canisters, has a method of 

 bringing meat into such a state that it may be exposed to all the 

 varieties of temperature and humidity in the open air, for many years, 

 without being injured ; it in said that this process may be adopted in 

 various seasons, and iu various latitudes ; and that when the meat so 

 preserved is about to be used, nothing more is necessary than to soak 

 it in water for a certain time, to restore or develope its natural but 

 dormant qualities. 



In the long interval of peace between 1815 and 1854, preserved foods 

 were used in regular and moderate quantity ; but when the Russian 

 war began, vast purchases were mode by the English and French 

 governments, with which the combined fleets in the Black and Baltic 

 Seas were supplied. The rather sudden termination of the war in 

 1856, left the French government with on enormous supply of unused 

 preserved meats in store ; and it was deemed better to sell these by 

 auction, in England, than to keep them for future exigencies. Cans of 

 preserved food formed part of the supplies for the troop-ships during 

 the Indian struggle of 1857-8. All emigrant vessels now include a 

 proportion of similar food among their supplies ; the allowance varies 

 from one to three pounds per week for each adult passenger, according 

 to the class of accommodation. 



ANTISPASMOUICS, from orr), agaitut, and me/At, tpcum, the 

 means of removing spasm. The state called spasm, or cramp, occurs 

 only in muscular structures, and consists in on irregular and often 

 excessive action of particular fibres of a muscle, of an entire muscle, or 

 of several muscles. The muscles of on miiml of the higher degrees of 

 organisation, such aa man, are divided into two classes, the one set 

 comprising those which are concerned in carrying on the functions 

 most essential to life, namely, the circulation, respiration, and digestion, 

 which act independently of the will, and are therefore called involun- 

 tary muscles ; the other, which are organs of motion, and subject in a 

 certain degree to the control of the will, are termed voluntary muscles. 

 Each set act in consequence of the application to them of some 

 stimulus ; and their action is only uniform or natural when their appro- 

 priate stimuli are applied. The heart, for example, contracts from the 

 stimulus of the blood ; and the intestines are so constructed as to have 

 proper motions excited in them by the food which we take, and the 

 secretions which are mixed with it ; which actions, in the healthy state, 

 go on, not only without our willing it, but also without our conscious- 

 ness. The stimulus to the other set is either a sensation felt in the 

 part and communicated to the chief nervous centres, namely, the spinal 

 chord or brain, or a spontaneous effort of volition proceeding from the 

 brain, and originating in some thought, and connected with some pur- 

 pose or design, to be executed by the muscles thrown into action. Of 

 the motion of such muscles we are always more or less conscious, and 

 when the system is in iU perfect or usual state of health, we can repeat 

 their action for a considerable length of time, and regulate its degree 

 by repeated and distinct efforts of the will, as when a man walks and 

 quickens or slackens his pace according to his inclination. But a variety 

 of circumstances influence the action both of voluntary and involuntary 

 muscles, and render it irregular. When influenced by any of these, the 

 action of the involuntary muscles becomes sensible and painful, and the 

 voluntary muscles cease to be under the control of the will, and act not 

 only without its stimulus, but often against its consent. These dis- 



