AmjJu°iy!'i9io.rm'}     Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy.  347 
PHILADELPHIA  COLLEGE  OF  PHARMACY. 
SPECIAL  LECTURES,  I909-I9IO. 
Modern  Methods  of  Food  Manufacture  was  the  subject  of 
the  ninth  lecture  of  the  series.  The  lecture  was  delivered  on  Friday, 
February  n,  at  3.30  p.m.,  by  Mr.  L.  S.  Dow,  of  the  Heinz  Preserv- 
ing Co.,  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  and  was  illustrated  by  means  of  lantern 
slides.  Prof.  Samuel  P.  Sadtler,  in  introducing  the  speaker  re- 
marked upon  the  special  interest  of  this  topic  to  the  food  analyst 
and  also  on  the  interest  which  the  public  is  beginning  to  manifest 
in  the  subject  of  pure  and  wholesome  foods. 
The  lecturer  dwelt  more  especially  on  the  practice  of  food  pre- 
serving. He  enumerated  the  various  methods  and  agents  used  in  the 
preserving  art,  tracing  their  use  in  some  cases  back  to  pre-historic 
times.  In  discussing  the  older  and  newer  theories  regarding  putre- 
factive and  fermentative  changes  in  food  products,  he  spoke  in  part 
as  follows : 
"  Modern  food  preserving  in  its  broader  adaptation  may  be  said 
to  have  had  its  origin  in  the  discovery  by  the  Frenchman,  Appert, 
in  1804,  that  an  article  of  food  first  heated,  then  hermetically  sealed 
and  sterilized,  would  keep  practically  as  long  as  the  seal  was  intact, 
without  the  use  of  chemical  assistance. 
"  In  Appert's  time  and  indeed,  until  recent  years,  it  was  generally 
thought  that  the  things  essential  to  the  preservation  of  food  in  this 
manner  were  the  exclusion  of  air  and  the  application  of  gentle  heat 
to  cause  a  fusion  of  the  principal  constituents  and  ferments,  in  such 
a  manner  that  the  power  of  the  ferments  would  be  destroyed. 
"  One  year  later,  de  Heine,  then  in  England,  patented  a  process 
by  which  he  claimed  that  food  could  be  preserved  by  completely  ex- 
hausting the  air  with  an  air  pump.  All  attempts  at  this,  however, 
seem  to  have  been  unsuccessful,  until  a  process  patented  by  Wer- 
theimer  in  1839  came  to  be  used.  This  provided  that  the  food  to  be 
preserved  should  be  placed  in  tin  or  metal  cans,  the  interstices  being 
filled  with  water,  juices  or  other  fluid,  and  the  lid  securely  sealed. 
The  cans  were  then  set  in  water  and  boiled,  the  air  being  expelled 
through  small  holes  pierced  in  the  lids.  When  the  food  was  suffi- 
ciently cooked  and  the  air  entirely  driven  out,  the  holes  were  filled 
with  solder,  completing  the  process.  Food  thus  treated  would  re- 
main in  a  perfect  state  almost  indefinitely.    Xo  very  great  improve- 
