PROFESSOR GAMGEE'S MEAT-PRESERVING PROCESS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 14, Issue 1144, 15 April 1870, Page 5

PROFESSOR GAMGEE'S MEAT-PRE-SERVING PROCESS.

(Prom the " Argus.") Four cases of meat, preserved by Professor Gamgee's process, which arrived in Melbourne last week by the R.M.S. Geelong, from England, were opened on Wednesday, at Messrs. R. Goldsbrough and Co.'s wool stores, to see how the contents had stood the voyage out. Two of the cases had been consigned to Messes. Dalgety, Blackwood and Co., and two to the Australian Mortgage, Land, and Finance Company. When the lids of the boxes were taken off, and the casing of tallow removed from the meat, the contents, in each instance, were found to be in a very bad state ; and when the several quarters and joints of mutton and beef had been laid out on a table, ifc was seen that the meat was all alike, or at any rate, thafc if the beef was slightly better thau the mutton, both were more or less putrid, and utterly unfit for use. The meat had entirely lost its fresh colour, and was evidently fast on its way to rottenness, particularly so the parts surrounding the bone. Some portions were as blue as if they bad been steeped in dye. The tallow which had been used for lining the case and for filling up all the gaps between the pieces, was also in bad condition, especially where it had been in contact with the meat. It resembled cakes of bad cheese as much as anything. Both meat aud tallow gave off a most offensive smell — so offensive that very few of the large number of persons who came to inspect the meat, were able to give it more than a cursory examination, and the men who had to handle it were made to feel very uncomfortable. Two or three of the pieoes that seemed in the least advanced sta<»e were sent to Mr. R. U. Miller, confectioner, of Collins-street, to be conked, but they were found to be quite unfit for undergoing any such process. This experiment at sending meat in a preserved state across the seas, therefore, has proved an entire failure. The arrival of the othar packages, preserved according to the same process, that the ship Crusader is bringing, will now be looked forward to with considerable anxiety. Seeing how well the experiments appear to have answered in England, and that packages have been carried across the Atlantic from America to England, without-sustain-ing any damage, it is quite possible that the shipment by the Geelong may prove an exceptional one. At the same time the weak point of the invention lies in the application of it to the preservation of meat intended for a long voyage. The agentgeneral of Victoria, in bis last despatch, mentions that experiments were being made afc the time he wrote to find out the best means of packing the meat for shipment to Australia. The quarters and carcases sent from Western America to England were packed in cloths and common deal boxes. The consignment which was opened yesterday came in deal boxes, with the meat very closely packed in tallow — -and so closely packed that before the boxes were opened, scarcely any unpleasant smell was noticed. The nature of Professor Gamgee's process has already been told two or three times over in our columns — it was described pretty fully in the despatches received from Mr. Verdon by the December mail, and again in the letter of our London correspondent, published on Thursday last. But" as the result of the present test may draw attention to the process in quarters where it has not received notice before, it will save time to repeat briefly whafc the process is. The chief agent employed is sulphurous acid; but in order to prevent this from flavouring the meat, there is a preliminary exposure to carbonic oxide, by which the colouring matier ofthe blood and tissues is rendered able to resist the reducing or decomposing action of the acid. In the firsfc place the animals are killed by being made to breathe carbonic oxide. Insensibility is quickly produced, and then the animal is bled and the carcase dressed in the ordinary way. The carcase having reached a temperature of 50 degrees (Fahr.) it is placed in an airtight chamber, and there left fbr a certain period in an atmosphere of carbonio oxide and nitrogen. It is then exposed to the action of sulphurous acid gas for some days. In connexion with this matter, we may state that a saddle of mutton, preserved by Mr. Patrick Hayes in accordance with a process hit upon by him about four years ago, underwent the test of being tasted yesterday afternoon, in the presence nf a number of gentlemen, at the shop of Mr. 14. U. Miller, on whose premises the meat was cooked. Six months had elapsed since the mutton was cured. Mr. Hayes method was to cause the living animal to inhale carbonic oxide. Therein his process agrees to a slight extent with that of Professor Gamgee, who uses the same gas, but ratiier as an auxiliary to sulphurous acid, which, it is well known, has the remarkable property of arresting animal decomposition. This inhalation process of Air. iliiyes must not be confounded with the more important one that he has placed before the public, for ifc is nofc one in which ho himself seems to have a great degree of confidence. A few months ago, when several persons met at Messrs. Clough's stores for the 'purpese of tasting meat that had been preserved by Mr. Hayes in litis, this identical saddle of mutton was exhibited on the same occasion. It had then been two or three weeks cured. Since the sheep from which it was taken was killed, the "saddle" has been exposed to the atmosphere, being hung up the greater part ot the time in Messrs. Clough and Co.'s stores. When it came to be tasted yesterday ifc was found to be quite sound, bufc dark in colour, and haviug a somewhat unpalatable flavour.