Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 460, by Various

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Title: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 460
Volume 18, New Series, October 23, 1852

Author: Various

Editor: William Chambers
Robert Chambers

Release Date: January 4, 2008 [EBook #24158]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S
INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.

No. 460. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1852. PRICE 1-1/2_d._

PRESERVED MEATS AND MEAT-BISCUITS.

The many-headed public look out for 'nine days' wonders,' and speedily
allow one wonder to obliterate the remembrance of that which preceded
it. So it is with all newspaper topics, and so it has been in respect
to the preserved-meat question. We all know how great was the
excitement at the commencement of the present year on this matter.
Ships' accounts overhauled; arctic stores re-examined; canisters
opened and rejected; contracts inquired into; statements and
counter-statements published; questionings of Admiralty officials in
the two Houses of Parliament; reports published by committees;
recommendations offered for future guidance; descriptions of the
preserving processes at different establishments: all went the round
of the newspapers, and then the topic was forgotten. It deserves to be
held in remembrance, however, for the subject-matter is really
important and valuable, in respect not only to the stores for
shipping, but to the provisioning of large or small bodies of men
under various exceptional circumstances.

A few of the simple laws of organic chemistry suffice to account for
the speedy decay of dead animal substances, and for the methods
whereby this decay is retarded or prevented. In organised substances,
the chemical atoms combine in a very complex but unstable way; several
such atoms group together to form a proximate