Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Oct.  1, 1871. 
Preservation  of  Raw  Meat. 
467 
EXPERIMENTS  MADE  FOR  THE  PURPOSE  OF  PRESERVING 
RAW  MEAT. 
By  Dr.  Baudet. 
Since  I  had  obtained,  by  a  lengthy  practice,  some  considerable  ex- 
perience as  regards  the  antiseptic  and  preservative  properties  of  a 
substance  which  I  term  spyrol  (carbolic  acid),  for  being  applied  to  the 
tanning,  tawing,  and  currying  operations,  I  felt  induced  to  try  some 
experiments  as  regards  the  use  of  that  body  for  the  preservation  of 
meat. 
First  process  :  By  immersion  in  phenie  water  at  from  5-10,000  to 
1-1,000. — On  the  18th  of  October  last  year  I  took  four  wide-mouthed 
stoppered  bottles,  and  placed  in  each  250  grms.  of  raw  horseflesh, 
slightly  moistened  with  phenicated  water  in  the  following  propor- 
tions : — No.  1,  solution  at  4-1,000 ;  No.  2,  solution  at  3-1,000  ;  No. 
3,  solution  at  2-1,000  ;  No.  4,  solution  at  1-1,000.  To  the  contents 
of  every  bottle  I  added  a  few  small  pieces  of  well-burnt  charcoal,  with 
the  view  to  absorb  any  gaseous  matter  which  might  be  evolved  from 
the  meat ;  after  having  hermetically  closed  the  bottles,  I  have  kept 
these  for  thirteen  weeks  in  a  room  constantly  heated  at  from  15°  to 
20°.  On  inspecting  the  bottles  after  the  lapse  of  time  just  mentioned, 
I  found  that  the  liquid  which  covers  the  meat  had  in  all  bottles  be- 
come slightly  rose-red  colored.  The  state  of  the  meat,  on  examining 
it,  was  found  as  follows  :  No.  1.  The  meat  had  become  somewhat 
blackish-colored,  but  was  not  spoiled  at  all.  No.  2.  Meat  very  well 
preserved,  color  light  rose-red.  No.  3.  Meat  perfectly  well  kept, 
with  the  natural  color  of  fresh  meat.  No.  4.  Meat  has  quite  well 
kept ;  its  color  has  greatly  improved  considering  that  raw  horseflesh 
is  naturally  deep-colored.  A  few  days  after,  having  inspected  and 
noted  down,  as  described,  the  contents  of  each  bottle,  I  have  taken 
a  portion  of  the  meat  of  No.  3  bottle,  and,  without  having  it  washed 
or  drained,  have  fried  it,  and  dressed  as  a  beefsteak  ;  on  partaking 
of  it,  in  company  with  several  other  parties,  we  found  the  meat  ex- 
cellent, having  only  acquired  a  slight  taste  similar  to  that  of  cured 
ham  and  bacon,  but  by  no  means  disagreeable.  I  have  kept  at  the 
same  temperature  as  indicated  above,  and  under  the  same  conditions, 
the  meat  in  the  bottles,  well-closed,  and  have  not  observed,  up  to 
the  middle  of  February  last,  any  other  change  in  the  meat  than  an 
external  drying  and  shrivelling  up,  and  deeper  color,  but  internally 
the  natural  color  remains.    From  the  foregoing  experiments,  I  con- 
