560 
PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY, EDINBURGH. 
convert them into an innocuous condiment. Of the powers of lime juice I can 
speak with some confidence, and I commend it to your notice. The rationale 
of its action I do not attempt to explain, hut in its powers as an antidote in 
poisoning by the Euphorbiacece I have great faith. 
1 he I resident lemarked that, as that was the last evening meetim'’ of 
the session,, he was quite sure he only expressed the wishes of those present 
wnen he said that their thanks were particularly due to all those who had read 
papers at the evening meetings during the last session. He trusted that next 
} ecu they might all meet again, and with a considerable increase in their 
numbers. 
PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY, EDINBUEGH. 
.. meeting °1 Society was held in St. George’s Hall, on Tuesday evening, the 3rd 
of April; Mr. Kemi>, President, in the chair. 
xMr. John Mackay brought before the meeting a new method of preserving beef, 
mutton, and other animal substances used for food in a perfectly fresh condition, free 
from salt or any other ingredient likely to interfere with the flavour or condition of the 
materia 1 so preserved. Mr. Mackay stated that the discovery of the process about to be 
submitted was due to.Dr. Redwood, who in the course of last summer commenced a 
series of experiments with paraffin, in, of course, a state of purity. The following- 
peculiarities of this substance were referred to, viz. its solidity, whiteness, tastelessness, 
and entire freedom from smell. At a heat of about 130° it becomes fluid, and will, in 
this condition bear a considerable amount of heat without boiling, and thus enables the 
experimenter to raise the temperature, if required, several hundred degrees above 212°, 
the boiling-point of water, without in any respect altering its condition. It was found 
that animal substances, when immersed in a bath of paraffin heated to about 250° F. 
lapidly lost the air and water which all such substances contain, leaving the iuice of the 
meat in a concentrated state. Mr. Mackay explained how this was done. According to 
the thickness of the mass of meat the time of its immersion is increased or diminished. 
,y ™ 1S process tno germs of destruction are found to be quite destroyed, very much on 
le same principle that the various articles of food are prepared in hermetically sealed 
vessels, or calf-foot jelly bottled and kept in a perfect state of preservation. When the 
meat has thus been allowed to remain a sufficient length of time in the highly-heated 
paraffin, it is removed, and immediately dipped into a bath containing the same ma¬ 
terial, at a ower temperature, and after two or three dippings the process is complete, 
and the substances thus preserved are ready either for home or foreign consumption 
Already various samples have been prepared, and, after three months’keeping, have 
been cooked and found perfectly sweet, and free from any taint whatever. So success- 
u has the process been, so far as it has been tried, in connection with experiments 
T? G a CeCl ^ a , st ^ u j nn ; er ? that a company has been formed in London, under the name 
oi Redwoods Patents Company, Limited,” where experiments are still going on with 
a great variety of different substances—such as bacon, beef, mutton, butter, e.crgs. sau- 
sages, cheese, hams, etc. the company, having secured patent rights on the Continent 
and m South America hope that ere long, choice beef and mutton will be sent home to 
Treat utain m a perfectly fresh state, and be sold at such prices as must of necessity 
prove a boon to the public generally, but more especially to the poorer portion of the 
inhabitants m this country. Mr. Mackay submitted to the meeting several specimens of 
meat prepared by the new process,, including a jigot of mutton and several chops. 
These looked very beautiful, resembling in appearance the purest alabaster, and, though 
landlcd a good deal, remained unchanged. Some of the samples shown had been nre- 
parcc \ e wee's, and Mi Mackay stated that one cooked a few days previously was per- 
ectly sweet and fresh. The following are the directions by which the preserved meat 
wL JC C0 1f ; h ui m ° Ve , the greater P art of the Paraffin by breaking it with a 
SL° r °+ her SU i! tab !n instru T e J nt ’ and peeling it off ; then put the meat into a vessel 
C O mg water, when the remainder of the paraffin will melt and rise to the surface. 
