UTILIZATION  OF  BRINE. 
355 
expected,  was  saturated  with  the  soluble  nutritive  ingredients 
of  the  flesh  ;  it  was,  in  fact,  juice  of  flesh— soup,  with  all  its 
valuable  and  restorative  properties.  In  the  large  curing  estab- 
lishments of  this  city  very  considerable  quantities  of  this 
brine  were  produced,  and  thrown  away  as  useless.  This  was 
the  material  to  which  Mr.  Whitelaw  has  applied  the  process  of 
of  dialysis,  and  he  thought  with  success,  for  the  removal  of  the 
salts  of  the  brine,  and  for  the  production,  at  a  cheap  rate,  of 
pure  fresh  extract  of  meat.  His  process  he  stated  as  follows: 
The  brine,  after  being  filtered  to  free  it  from  any  patricles  of 
flesh  or  other  mechanical  impurities  it  might  contain,  was  then 
subjected  to  the  operation  of  dialysis.  The  vessels  or  bags  in 
which  he  conducted  the  operation  might  be  made  of  various 
materials  and  of  many  shapes  ;  but  whatever  might  be  their 
material  or  shape,  he  called  them  "  dialysers."  Such  an  ap- 
paratus as  the  following  would  be  found  to  answer  the  purpose; 
— A  square  vat  made  of  a  framework  of  iron  filled  up  with 
sheets  of  skin  or  parchment  paper  in  such  a  way  as  to  be 
water  tight,  and  strengthened,  if  necessary,  by  stays  or  straps 
of  metal.  The  sides,  ends,  and  bottom  being  composed  of  this 
soft  dialysing  material,  exposed  a  great  surface  to  the  action  of 
the  water  contained  in  an  outer  vat,  in  which  the  dialyser  was 
placed.  He  found  a  series  of  ox-bladders  fitted  with  stop-cocks, 
or  gutta  percha  mouth-tubes,  and  plugs,  and  hung  on  rods 
stretching  across  and  into  vats  of  water,  a  very  cheap  and  ef- 
fective arrangement.  He  could  also  employ  skins  of  animals 
either  as  open  bags  or  closed,  and  fitted  with  stop-cocks  or 
bags  of  double  cloth,  with  a  layer  of  soft  gelatine  interspersed 
between  them.  Other  arrangements  would  readily  suggest 
themselves,  and  might  be  adopted  according  to  circumstances. 
But  supposing  the  bladder  arrangement  was  taken,  which  he 
thought  would  be  found  practically  the  best,  being  cheap,  easily 
managed,  and  exposing  a  great  surface  to  a  dialytic  action. 
/  The  bladders  were  filled  with  the  filtered  brine  by  means  of 
fillers,  and  hung  in  rows  on  poles  across,  and  suspended  into  vats 
of  water.  The  water  in  those  vats  was  renewed  once  a  day,  or 
oftener  if  required,  and  he  found  that  actually  at  the  end  of 
the  third  or  fourth  day,  according  to  the  size  of  the  blad- 
ders employed,  almost  all  the  common  salt  and  nitre  of  the 
