342  PRESERVATION  OF  MEATS  BY  PARAFFIN. 
in  the  highly-heated  paraffin,  it  is  removed,  and  immediately 
dipped  into  a  bath  containing  the  same  material,  at  a  lower  tem- 
perature, and,  after  two  or  three  dippings,  the  process  is  com- 
plete. 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  successful  has  the 
process  been,  so  far  as  it  has  been  tried,  in  connection  with  ex- 
periments commenced  last  summer,  that  a  company  has  been 
formed  in  London,  under  the  name  of  "  Redwood's  Patents 
Company,  Limited,"  where  experiments  are  still  going  on  with 
a  variety,  of  different  substances — such  as  bacon,  beef,  mutton, 
butter,  eggs,  sausages,  cheese,  hams,  etc.  The  Company,  hav- 
ing secured  patent  rights  on  the  Continent  and  in  South 
America,  hope  that,  ere  long,  choice  beef  and  mutton  will  be 
sent  home  to  Great  Britain  in  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  in  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  handled  a  good  deal,  remained  unchanged.  Some 
of  the  samples  shown  had  been  prepared  five  wTeeks,  and  Mr. 
Mackay  stated  that  one  cooked  a  few  days  previously  was  per- 
fectly sweet  and  fresh.  The  following  are  the  directions  by 
which  the  preserved  meat  may  be  cooked : — "  Remove  the 
greater  part  of  the  paraffin  by  breaking  it  with  a  hammer  or 
other  suitable  instrument,  and  peeling  it  off;  then  put  the  meat 
into  a  vessel  of  boiling  water,  when  the  remainder  of  the  par- 
affin will  melt  and  rise  to  the  surface,  leaving  the  meat  entirely 
free  from  it.  When  it  has  cooled,  the  hardened  paraffin  may  be 
taken  from  the  surface  of  the  water,  and  the  meat  dried  with  a 
cloth.  It  is  now  ready  to  be  prepared  for  food  by  any  of  the 
usual  methods,  but  it  should  be  cooked  for  only  half  the  time 
required  for  unpreserved  fresh  meat.  The  paraffin  that  has 
been  removed  from  the  meat  may  be  kept  for  subsequent  use, 
being  quite  unchanged  or  injured  in  any  way."  In  closing  his 
remarks,  Mr.  M.   mentioned  that  further  experiments  were 
