236 
DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
cumstances perfectly easy. The machine acts as a force-pump or syringe. 
Its extremity is inserted into the meat, and the handle worked ; the 
brine, which must be very strong, is thus forced through the grain of the 
meat, and it is effectually impregnated with it, and well cured long ere 
it could turn : there can be no doubt but that this instrument is, under 
the circumstances described, eminently useful — but it is no less cer- 
tain that meat so cured is not equal to that saved under ordinary cir- 
cumstances and in the ordinary manner; the grain of the meat is too 
much loosened by the use of the machine, and the texture is thus de- 
teriorated ; it should therefore only be used when necessity requires, 
and never by 'preference , where the ordinary process can be adopted. 
To extract the superabundant salt from your meat, prior to use, has 
long been a desideratum. The steeping it in water to which carbonate 
of soda has been added, is found useful ; so is the addition of the same 
substance, or of lime, to the water in which it is boiled ; so is changing 
the water, after the meat has been about halt-boiled. Sailors find wash- 
ing the meat in sea-water very efficacious, but I have made the discovery 
that this object can be attained to a far fuller extent by a very simple 
chemical process. 
Put your meat to steep in tepid water, and after it has lain in it 
for some hours, add a small quantity of sulphuric acid. In three or four 
hours take it out, and wash it two or three times in water; to the third 
water add a small portion of carbonate of soda. Take your meat out, 
wash it again, and boil it for dinner. You will find the salt nearly, if 
not wholly discharged ; but you need not be surprised should the color 
of the me,at be somewhat darkened — the deterioration does not extend 
farther ; the flavor remains the same as when first corned, and the 
article becomes as wholesome as fresh meat. It is possible that this 
simple process maybe found useful in long voyages, for a long-continued 
use of salted animal food, without a free use of vegetables, is found to 
contribute to the production of many diseases. 
The following communication, coming from a curer by profession, 
will be found at once interesting and useful : 
“The hog is usually kept fasting for twenty-four hours previous to 
being killed. He is then brought to the slaughter-house, and dispatched 
in the following manner : the butcher takes a mall (a hammer with a long 
handle, like those used for breaking stones on a road), and with it strikes 
the hog on the forehead ; if he be an expert hand, a single blow will 
suffice to knock the hog down and render him quite senseless. A knife 
is then taken, and the butcher sticks the animal in the lower part of 
the throat, just between the fore-legs. A boiler- or tub, full of very hot 
or boiling water, is then prepared, in which the hog is immersed until 
the hair becomes so loose that it can be scraped off with a knife quite 
clean ; where there is no convenience of this kind, the same effect may 
be produced by pouring boiling water over the hog. The hog is then 
hung up by the hind-legs, cut up the middle, and the entrails taken out; 
after this, the carcass is left there for about twelve hours, to cool and 
become firm, when it is fit for boning or cutting up. Sometimes, instead 
of scalding, the hog is singed by fire — burned straw is generally used 
for this purpose; and this is called ‘singed pork.’ 
