Great Exhibition of 1 85 1 . 1 53 



in a remarkable degree. Statements were made to us, which have 

 since been corroborated, that it would keep perfectly well, without 

 change, under disadvantageous circumstances. Colonel Sumner, 

 an officer in the United States Dragoons, who had seen it used 

 during field operations, says he is sure he could live upon it for 

 months, and retain his health and strength. The inventor, he 

 says, names five ounces a-day as the quantity for the support of 

 a man ; but he (Colonel Sumner) could not use more than four 

 ounces, made into soup, with nothing whatever added to it. The sub- 

 stance of these statements maybe said to amount to this, that Bor- 

 den's meat-biscuit is a material not liable to undergo change, is very 

 light, very portable, and extremely nutritious. A specimen, placed 

 in the hands of Dr Playfair for examination, was reported by him 

 to contain 32 per cent, of flesh-forming principles ; for it is a com- 

 position of meat, the essence of meat, and the finest kind of flour. 

 Dr Playfair stated that the starch was unchanged ; that conse- 

 quently there could have been no putrescence in the meat em- 

 ployed in its preparation, and that the biscuit was " in all respects 

 excellent.'' It was tasted — I tasted it — the Jury and others tasted 

 it ; and we all found nothing in it which the most fastidious per- 

 son could complain of : it required salt, or some other condiment, 

 as all these preparations do, to make them savoury. This meat- 

 biscuit, as I said just now, was reported to be capable of keeping 

 well ; and this might well be true, because no foreign matter had 

 'been introduced into its composition ; there was no salt to absorb 

 moisture, and nothing else to interfere with the property of flour, 

 or of essence of meat. These biscuits are prepared by boiling 

 down the best fresh beef that can be procured in Texas, and mix- 

 ing it in certain proportions with the finest flour that can be there 

 obtained. It is stated that the essence of five pounds of good 

 meat is estimated to be contained in one pound of biscuit. That 

 it is a material of the highest value there can be no doubt — to 

 what extent its value may go, nothing but time can decide ; but I 

 think I am justified in looking upon it as one of the most import- 

 ant substances which the Exhibition has brought to our knowledge. 

 When we consider that by this method, in such places as Buenos 

 Ayres, animals, which are there of little or no value, instead of 

 being destroyed, as they often are, for their bones, may be boiled 

 down and mixed with the flour, which all such countries produce, 

 and so converted into a substance of such durability that it may 

 be preserved with the greatest ease, and sent to distant countries, — 

 it seems as if a new means of subsistence was actually offered to 

 us. Take the Argentine Republic ; take Australia, and consider 

 what they do with their meat there in times of drought, when they 

 cannot get rid of it whilst it is fresh — they may boil it down, and 

 mix the essence with flour (and we know they have the finest in 

 the world), and so prepare a substance that can be preserved for 



