PROCESS OF PUTREFACTION. 133 



which has been buried in ice or kept in a very low temperature 

 for days and weeks, instantly decomposes ? Putrefaction ad- 

 vances so rapidly that the meats are unmarketable unless 

 transferred to and kept in ice up to the moment of l)eing 

 used. I think this admits of ready explanation. The surface 

 of meat which dries in the summer is, in common with the 

 interior, kept unchanged, except as regards the lowering of 

 the temperature. Atmospheric germs gather in it, and in the 

 interior of the blood-vessels, and the moment the meat is heated 

 moisture and an accumulation of atmospheric germs complete 

 the conditions for instant decay. 



In therefore considering the deterring effects of heat and cold 

 as regards putrefaction, we must not forget the process of dry- 

 ing, which is possible in the first case, and the manner in which 

 vitality remains latent is for a time suspended in the germs 

 under the influence of cold, but manifests itself so soon as 

 conditions are favorable. 



Animal heat is no more than any other heat, but it is operat- 

 ing in parts where the moisture is retained, and with an exter- 

 nal temperature of 90°, 100° or 110° Fahr., such as we liad 

 when we were packing meat last summer in Chicago, it is not 

 to be expected that exposure to the air will be followed by a 

 reduction of the internal heat. 



This leads me to consider in what ways meat may be rendered 

 less putrescible. If I want to preserve large masses of flesh to 

 be exposed in the open air, I must render that flesh an unfit soil 

 for the reproduction of putrefactive germs. 



Salt and sugar act by their affinity for water ; and, in obedi- 

 ence to the well-known laws of endosmosis and exosmosis, the 

 juices of the meat passing out to tlie dense pickle, and the salt 

 or sugar penetrating and. becomijig intimately blended with the 

 meat particles. So soon, however, as any decomposition occurs 

 under the influence of exalted temperature in the interior of 

 the meat, a mass of living organisms develops, and the altered 

 flesh liquefying, is transformed into the textures of the low 

 organisms which infest it, and thus fails to take the salt. The 

 gases of decomposition are likewise formed, and the structures 

 are inflated and disorganized beyond chance of restoration. 



The slightest knowledge of the fundamental principles in oper- 

 ation in salting meats would have saved thousands of pounds to 



