304 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



water or a mouthful of food during that time, and compelled to 

 breathe constantly a pestiferous air. 



They arrive here, of course, in a highly feverish condition. 

 Their flesh is diseased, so much so that if there were an attempt 

 to keep them a few weeks and restore them to a normal condi- 

 tion of health, a very large per cent, would die, and the balance 

 would inevitably fall off in flesh. 



By Gamgee's method of preservation, the carbonic oxide is 

 administered very much in the manner of giving ether, the 

 animal sufiers but slightly, if at all, and the flesh is preserved 

 fresh and sound for months, with less cost than the ordinary 

 mode of salting. The oxygen being entirely removed from the 

 body of the animal and displaced by the carbonic oxide, all 

 parasites, trichinae, <fec., are probably destroyed, and the flesh of 

 swine rendered as harmless as possible. This process of preser- 

 vation will avoid the necessity of the use of salted meats, and 

 enable both the city and the country consumer to have a supply 

 of fresh and healthful meats at a less cost than heretofore, while 

 whole carcases can in a very short time be preserved at or near 

 the place where the animal is raised — at the West, in Texas or 

 South America — and sent to a distant market at small expense. 



This invention promises, therefore, to have an important 

 bearing upon the supplies of healthful animal food throughout 

 the world. 



CHARLES L. FLINT, 



Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture. 

 Boston, January 22, 1868. 



