EFFECTS OF SALTING MEATS. 135 



regard to salt beef. Referring to this kind of meat, a practical 

 curer has said : " If we attempt to roast or broil or fry it, the 

 application of fire for either purpose, by further contracting the 

 already contracted fibres, hardens it to such a degree that it can- 

 not be consumed. If we boil it without previous soaking to 

 remove the superabundant salt, the result is about as bad ; if 

 we soak it first and then boil it, the remainder is a lump of fibre, 

 almost indigestible, and entirely useless for health and strength- 

 giving purposes." 



" We eat it," remarks Dr. Ure," on the same principle as that 

 ascribed to alligators, who swallow stones to appease the crav- 

 ings of hunger." " Having had its most valuable matters 

 removed by cold solutions of salt, the junk is next deprived of 

 its gelatine and osmazone by boiling water, and nothing but a 

 mass of fibrine, scarcely if at all susceptible of assimilation to 

 the powers of the animal economy, remains to give the appear- 

 ance of food to the product, and as it were keep the word of 

 promise to the eye to break it to the hope." 



Admitting all that can be said, and it is much, against the 

 extensive practice of salting meats, it is a necessary evil at the 

 present time, and must continue so till completely superseded, 

 as I believe it will be, by a method of fresh meat preservation. 

 The demand for salt meats is however so great, especially in 

 times of war, that other plans besides the infiltration process 

 have been suggested to facilitate the supply. The salting of 

 meats with hot pickle, the placing beef or pork in air-tight 

 receivers, exhausting the air, admitting brine, and subjecting the 

 whole mass to active motion, and lastly the forcing of brine into 

 barrels with a condensing pump, are all expedients which have 

 been tried and failed. Salting demands a gradual action, the 

 result of the establishment of endosmotic and exosmotic cur- 

 rents between the mass of meat and its surrounding pickle. I 

 shall further on allude to the mild salting of preserved meats, 

 and in the mean time have to draw attention to the principles 

 and practice of other means of saving meats. 



I shall not detain you with processes aiming at the concentra- 

 tion of flesh-juice or the drying of the whole mass of meat at a 

 low temperature, with a view to pulverizing and pressing it alone 

 or in combination with other materials. The plans adopted 



