WHAT WE EAT AND WHAT WE DRINK.

Thames Star, Volume III, Issue 1668, 23 April 1874, Page 2

WHAT WE EAT AND WHAT WE DRINK.

Upon this subject Dr. Lankester recently delivered a lecture at Preston, Lancashire, in which he said that "he considered that tinned meat which would enable the sailors to have it fresb all over the world was a safe and useful thing. The wonderful way in which meat could be preserved in those tins had been seen in the fact that cans of meat which were sent out to Sir James Boss in one of the Arctic expeditions had been recovered and opened. He had tested a quantity of it, and although it had been in the tin for 40 years it was quite as fresh as the best fresh meat. It was not quite so nice but that was a mere matter of taste— (laughter). He expressed his entire con* viction that the meat which was put down in those tins was just as good, for purposes of human nutrition, for purposes 6f food, as the freshest beef which was ever killed and eaten. It had enabled us to lay hold of the great flocks which were in Australia, in New Zealand, in Bolivia, in various parts of America, and other places of jHworld* were ours practically, and they would be ours more practically than ever by and by. In 1866, there were imported from abroad -3H20 worth of meat in these tins. But in 1873 there would be £1,000,000 worth imported. It was now excercising an influence on the market, and those who were crying out against high prices knew that fresh meat was not so costly as it was. It was this £1,000,000 worth of Australian meat that had reduced it. The average price of this Australian meat was 6d a pound, and the average price of fresh meat in Great Britain, for prime joints, was 8d and'9d, so that it looked as if they only got 2d a a pound; but, in the first place, in these tins they had no bone, and, in the second place, the meat had been cooked at a temperature of 240 degrees, and had lost more than half its water, so that really 6d worth of Australian meat, was equal to 16d worth of fresh meat. When they applied that to the great mass of our people, the hard-working men and women of Great Britain, there must be a saving of millions by this Australian meat. Some might say they did not like it. He did not care whether they likodit or not, but.he would say this, that if they took it, it would not hurt them—-it would not poison them. (Laughter).