PHARMACEUTICAL  GLEANINGS. 
113 
paps,  custards,  puddings,  and  cakes,  equal  to  the  best  milk,  and 
one  may  be  sure  that  it  is  an  unadulterated  article,  obtained 
from  well-pastured  cattle,  and  not  the  produce  of  distillery  slops. 
It  is  considered  a  great  desideratum  for  travellers,  by  sea 
and  land,  and  the  best  substitute  for  fresh  milk. 
Putrefaction  prevented  by  the  filtration  of  air  through  cotton 
wool, — Messrs.  H.  Schroder  and  Th.  de  Dusch,  in  the  June  num- 
ber of  the  "  Annales  de  Chimie  et  de  Physique ,"  have  published 
some  interesting  results  in  reference  to  the  effect  of  filtration  on 
air,  in  depriving  it  of  the  power  of  causing  or  sustaining  putre- 
faction. The  authors  put  fresh  meat  with  water  in  a  flask  closed 
with  a  cork  rendered  air-tight  by  wax,  through  which  two  L 
shaped  tubes  passed,  one  reaching  nearly  to  the  meat.  The 
latter  was  connected  with  the  top  of  a  large  vessel  filled  with 
water,  and  acting  as  an  aspirator  by  opening  a  cock  below;  the 
other  was  joined  by  a  tight  cork  to  a  tube  about  an  inch  in 
diameter,  and  23.5  inches  long  filled  with  carded  cotton,  and 
having  a  cork  perforated  by  a  small  glass  tube  to  admit  the  ex- 
ternal air,  placed  in  the  opposite  end. 
The  same  quantities  of  water  and  flesh  were  exposed  in  another 
flask,  to  the  free  action  of  the  air,  when  the  water  in  both  was 
boiled  until  the  air  was  driven  out  by  the  steam,  and  the  juice  of 
the  meat  coagulated.  The  aspirator  was  then  put  in  action  by 
permitting  the  water  to  escape  by  drops,  so  as  to  establish  a  slow 
but  constant  current  of  air  through  the  apparatus,  which  was 
continued  for  23  days,  (in  February  and  March.)  At  the  end 
of  this  time,  the  meat  was  found  fresh  and  unchanged,  whilst 
that  in  the  open  flask  had  commenced  to  putrefy  in  the  2d  week, 
and  emitted  an  insupportably  bad  odor.  The  preservative  experi- 
ment was  repeated  between  20th  April  and  14th  of  May,  with 
the  same  result. 
The  authors  then  tried,  whether  under  the  same  circumstances^ 
recent  beer  wort  would  be  prevented  from  entering  into  fermen- 
tation, notwithstanding  its  well  known  tendency  to  do  it.  At 
the  end  of  23  days  it  was  quite  sweet  and  unchanged. 
When,  however,  milk  simply  boiled,  and  meat  cooked  in 
a  water  bath  were  exposed  in  the  same  apparatus,  they  putrefied 
as  rapidly  as  in  open  vessels.  Another  experiment,  like  the  first, 
with  meat  and  broth,  made  in  hot  weather,  was  not  entirely  suc- 
cessful. 
8 
