STORAGE IN COLD CHAMBERS. 213 



The oldest known remedy is cold, but in order to realise ex- 

 pectations, the temperature must be kept several degrees below 

 zero (C.), and this is the method pursued in the large (export) 

 abattoirs in America (Chicago in particular) and Australia. Im- 

 mediately a beast is killed and disembowelled, the carcase is placed 

 in a refrigerating chamber and then transported in cooled railway 

 trucks, and cold chambers on ship-board, to its destination in a 

 frozen state. Thus, for instance, there appear daily in the London 

 market hundreds of carcases of Australian sheep still frozen hard. 

 In a similar manner Central Europe has been for several years 

 supplied with haddocks prepared for shipment in the north of 

 Norway (Vardb) by being frozen at -40 R. (-50 C.) directly 

 they are caught and cleaned, and being then shipped in this con- 

 dition in specially built steamers. The freezing of meat does not 

 kill the germs present, but merely hinders their reproduction, and, 

 as a matter of fact, A. KOCH (III.) found very many bacteria in 

 fish that had been treated in this way. 



If the meat be riot stored at low temperatures, but merely put 

 in the ice-chest or laid on ice, whereby it attains, in the most 

 favourable instances, a temperature of o C., then, as follows from 

 the already reported labours of Forster and others, an increase of 

 the initial number of germs ensues. To the activity of such cold- 

 supporting organisms is attributable the peculiar, disagreeable taste 

 and smell acquired by edibles after remaining in the ice-chest for 

 a few days. Actual putrefaction is not, however, produced by 

 these bacteria. 



We must not lose the present opportunity of issuing a warning 

 against bringing food-stuffs in immediate contact with natural 

 ice, since this substance contains not only numerous putrefactive 

 bacteria, but also, under certain circumstances, pathogenic germs 

 (especially typhus bacilli) as well. In this connection we may 

 refer to the researches into the bacterium content of ice that have 

 been made by C. FRAENKEL (V.), BORDONI-UFFREDUZZI (II.), F. 

 PRUDDEN (I.), and A. HEYROTH (I.). In the cooling chambers of 

 large abattoirs of the arrangement of which there is an excellent 

 description in a work by OSTHOFF (I.) the meat is not exposed to 

 this source of infection. 



The well-known fact that frozen meat, when thawed, undergoes 

 decomposition more rapidly than fresh meat is easily explained. 

 The cellular structure is loosened by freezing, and access to the 

 interior is thereby facilitated for any organisms present on the 

 surface. 



130. Dried Meat and Salted Meat. 



The development and activity of the organisms exciting de- 

 composition can also be prevented by depriving them of the water 

 necessary for metabolism. The drying of meat has been practised, 

 particularly in hot countries, from the earliest times. The result- 



