364 



FARMERS REGISTER— SALTPETRE IN MEAT. 



did great service to the planters below, so the pro- 

 posed dam will not confer a similar benefit on 

 them. Eventually, ulterior advantages may be ob- 

 tained to recover a mass of now useless land, and a 

 proper use made of the declining character of the 

 face of the back swamp towards tlie high land ; but, 

 this must be left to time and experience. 



The tliird portion is, the swamp at Fulton. Tiiis 

 is less known to the writer; but, from the repr - 

 sentations of intelligent persons, there is no doubt 

 as good ground for improvement there as above, 

 although perhaps the ground is little lower. To 

 the Charleston Rail Road, the pass way at Fulton 

 is of the last importance, as though an immense 

 portion of the cotton raised in Sumter, will be con- 

 veyed to Columbia or Charleston. I say to either, 

 and particularly call the attention of Columbia, to 

 the necessity of attracting the cotton of lower 

 and middle Sumter to its market. — It now ex- 

 clusively goes to Charleston. This slioukl be 

 thought of when the site of the road is fixed. 



But the river — the bridges — these are the difli- 

 culties and well will it be, if the temptation of the 

 Columbia bridge do not carry the road from Co- 

 lumbia too near the section of country occupied by 

 the Charleston road and too far from that possess- 

 ing any convenience of the kind. However, the 

 subject is jjremature ; but, I cannot avoid a refer- 

 ence to the April 1832 number, or thereabouts, of 

 the Franklin Institute, where there is to be found 

 an article relative to the German boat bridge, and 

 which, answering as it did, to transport the tre- 

 mendous mass of artillery it did during the last 

 war, could surely be made available in this coun- 

 try. A3IPHICON. 



SALTPETRE IN MEAT. 



From the New York Farmer. 



It is a matter of regret, that while so much salt 

 meat is made and used, we have not yet acquired 

 the proper knowledge of the best mode to prepare 

 and preserve it ; nor is it generally known how 

 noxious salt meat may become by an improper use 

 of saltpetre in the pickle or brine usually employed. 



There are various modes of preserving salt 

 meat and fish, by dryings salting, pickling, oiling, 

 smoking, &c.; but I merely mean at present to 

 notice some of the defects and noxious properties 

 of our actual salt meat, either beef or pork. 



One of the main defects appear to -consist in the 

 useless addition of saltpetre into the pickle, where- 

 by the meat often becomes sour or spoiled, and al- 

 ways acid and pernicious. I never could under- 

 stand why this substance was added to common 

 salt in curing meat, except that it is said to make 

 it look belter. But it ought to be known that the 

 part of saltpetre absorbed by the meat is nitric 

 acid or aquafortis, a deadly poison! whereby our 

 salt meat becomes unpalatable and pernicious. A 

 slight excess of this acid makes the meat sour, or 

 spoils it as we say. It has been suggested to cor- 

 rect this by potash, which re-absorbs this excess; 

 but merely hides the defect without neutralizing 

 the whole poison. 



Is it not surprising that we should feed and deal, 

 as a staple of our country, with an article contain- 

 ing a portion of such active poison as nitric acid? 

 In fact, our actual salt meats are no longer meat! 

 They are a new pernicious substance, produced by 

 a chemical action of salt upon the fle.sh of animals. 

 This flesh when fresh and clean consists chiefly of 



gelnntine and fibrine. Gelantine or jelly is the 

 substasice soluble in warm water, forming a broth 

 by boiline:, or becoming a jelly by concentration ; 

 while fibrine is the fibrous tough part of the meat, 

 which cannot be dissolved, and is therefore unfit 

 for food, while gelantine is the real nutritious part 

 of the meat. 



But it is well known that salt meat and even 

 corned beef can no longer afford a broth, and there- 

 fore gelantine must have been changed into another 

 substance no longer soluble, nor so nutritious, by 

 the chemical action of salt and saltpetre. To this 

 new substance chemists have -as yet not given a 

 name ; but is as different from meat as leather is 

 from the hide before it is tanned by the tan-bark or 

 tannin. 



To tliis chemical change in meat is to be ascri- 

 l)ed all the noxious qualities of salt meat, and the 

 diseases to which those who feed chiefly on it be- 

 come liable, — sea scurvy, land scurvy, sore gums, 

 rotten teeth, biles, ulcers, &c. — which we entail 

 on ourselves by using a kind of poisoned bad meat, 

 which we call salt. 



This important and doleful fact ought to be well 

 known, or made known generally to all those who 

 raise cattle, cure meat, or eat it in order that they 

 may correct this sad defect. 



The first thing to be done is to abandon altoge- 

 ther tlie use of saltpetre in curing meat. This is 

 indisjiensable, and no one who is told that aquafor- 

 tis is tlie produce of it, ought any longer to use 

 this poison in pickles or brines. 



The best substitute for it is sugar: a small 

 quantity added makes the meat healthier, sweeter, 

 nicer and equally durable. Let this be known to 

 all our farmers and sailors. 



How to make a brine for meat perfectly innocu- 

 ous is yet a desideratum. Gelantine ought to be 

 preserved in salt meat perfectly pure and soluble, 

 as it is in broth cakes, before any salt meat can be 

 perfectly healthy and equal to fresh meat. But at 

 any rate, by withholding the saltpetre, we divest 

 it of a deadly poisonous substance. 



Yours, &C. C. S. RAFINESQUE, 



Prof. Hist, and A^at. Sciences, 

 J^bn Place, Lansingburgh, N. Y. Jlvg. 5, 1833. 



RIessrs. Editors — It is with no small degree 

 of surprise that I observed in your paper, a com- 

 munication from Professor Rafinesque, in which 

 the use of saltpetre, for the purpose of preserving 

 meat, is condemned in the strongest terms. A 

 communication from such a source v«'ill be receiv- 

 ed by a great mass of the community as fact, with- 

 out inquiring whether it be so or not; and as the 

 article in question is most palpably erroneous, I 

 feel it to be due to the public that its errors should 

 be exposed. In the first place, it is stated that 

 " the part of saltpetre absorbed by the meat is 

 nitric acid, or aquafortis, a deadly poison," than 

 which nothing can be more erroneous. If Prof. 

 R. can decompose nitrate of potassa (saltpetre or 

 nitre) by means of animal muscle, he has gone one 

 step further in chemistry than any other person. 

 On the same principle may we say that common 

 salt is decomposed, and that the part which enters 

 the meat is muriatic acid, as powerful a poison 

 nearly as aquafortis. Mr. Rafinesque states that 

 he "never could understand why this substance 

 was added to common salt in curing meat, except 

 that it is said to make it look better."— As this is 



