ON   THE  MEAT  BISCUIT  OF  GAIL  BORDEN. 
225 
ON  THE  MEAT  BISCUIT  OF  GAIL  BORDEN. 
Br  B.  W.  M'Cready,  M.  D. 
The  preservation  of  animal  food,  by  which  the  surplus  pro- 
ducts of  one  section  of  country  can  be  made  available  for  the 
use  of  another,  and  by  which,  too,  it  can  be  made  serviceable  in 
long  journeys  by  land  or  sea  when  other  supplies  cannot  be  ob- 
tained, is  an  object  of  the  highest  importance.  The  employees 
of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  convert  their  meat  into  what  is 
called  pemican.  The  muscular  parts  of  the  animal  are  cut  into 
thin  strips,  thoroughly  dried,  reduced  to  powder,  and  mixed  in 
proper  proportion  with  melted  fat.  This  answers  perfectly  the 
purposes  for  which  it  was  intended.  All  the  nutriment  of  the 
meat  is  preserved,  it  is  compact,  easily  transported,  and  keeps 
for  a  long  time,  particularly  in  high  latitudes.  There  are  objec- 
tions, however,  to  the  process,  which  prevent  it  being  used  on  a 
large  scale. 
In  curing  meat  by  salting  it,  the  salt  acts  mainly  by  abstract- 
ing moisture  from  the  meat.  When  fresh  beef  is  covered  with 
dry  salt,  the  salt  soon  becomes  moist,  and  is  finally  dissolved. 
The  water  is  supplied  by  the  beef ;  the  latter  is  reduced  in  bulk, 
it  becomes  drier  and  corrugated.  The  same  process  goes  on 
when  meat  is  placed  in  strong  brine,  and  the  abstraction  of  mois- 
ture continues  for  a  considerable  time,  until  the  greatest  possible 
amount  is  withdrawn,  and  the  meat  becomes  dense  and  hard. 
Unfortunately,  the  moisture  does  not  consist  of  simple  water ;  it 
contains,  dissolved  in  it,  various  salts,  of  which  potash  is  the 
principal  base,  and  forms  what  has  been  termed  the  juice  of  the 
flesh.  Now,  in  the  living  animal,  these  salts  play  an  important 
part  in  the  wonderful  processes  which  constitute  nutrition.  During 
life,  together,  with  the  other  materials  of  the  body,  they  are  ex- 
posed to  constant  waste,  and  need  to  be  constantly  replaced. 
Salt  meat,  deprived  of  these  necessary  ingredients,  which  are  to 
some  extent  replaced  by  the  salt  itself,  does  not  contain  all  the 
elements  which  are  necessary  to  perfect  nutrition :  consequently, 
those  fed  on  it  exclusively  for  any  length  of  time  become  ill, 
they  are  affected  with  scurvy. 
Mr.  Gail  Borden,  of  Galveston,  Texas,  residing  in  a  land 
where  cattle  are  numerous,  and  meat  exceedingly  cheap,  has  at- 
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