UTILISATION OF RIVER PLATE BEEF. 113 



works, that there were many considerations and conditions 

 to be taken into account ; that it was not a matter to be 

 resolved by process alone ; that a little more or less of 

 salt or other antiseptic, or one or other method of using 

 the same, or of packing, &c. would not solve the question 

 of the utilisation of our beef. It became clear to me that 

 the habits of the cattle, their precarious feeding and 

 water supply, the long distances (often sixty or eighty 

 leagues) they were driven, the excitement of parting 

 out, the heat and the thirst, the storm and the cold (as 

 might be) to which they were exposed in long travelling, 

 the mode of slaughter and butchering, and many other 

 matters or conditions, must necessarily have an influence 

 which could not be counteracted by a mere process. 



I have known a variety of experiments made, and 

 processes tried, and of numerous shipments ; I have 

 heard and read of sanguine expectations, and even favour- 

 able reports, some of which have appeared under sanction 

 of high authority one no less than the ' Lancet ;' but 

 knowing well the cattle of this country, their habits and 

 condition, and the system followed in respect of them, as 

 also the methods resorted to with the object of preserving 

 the beef, I have held, and do hold, the opinion that by no 

 process of salting or curing can the beef of the cattle, in 

 the condition in which they are as a rule brought to the 

 slaughter, be made a desirable food. 



Admitting that certain sample shipments have been 

 sound and comparatively good, an infinitely greater pro- 

 portion have been unsound and bad ; and I hold a 

 priori that the prohibition of the sale of South American 

 beef, some short time ago, by the Sanitary Board in 

 England, was well considered and well founded. When 

 sound beef has arrived in England, it has been made from 

 animals in an exceptional condition, and these exceptions 



I 



