been employed only as a substitute
for salt beef or pork at sea, and if eaten on shore, it was at first
as a curiosity merely. Their utility in hot climates, however,
speedily became evident; especially in India, where European families
are scattered, and where, consequently, on the slaughter of a large
animal, more is wasted than can be consumed by a family of the
ordinary number.'

Whatever improvements may have been introduced by later manufacturers,
the principle involved in the meat-preserving processes is nearly as
M. Appert established it forty years ago. His plan consisted in
removing the bones from the meat; boiling it to nearly as great a
degree as if intended for immediate consumption; putting it into jars;
filling up the jars completely with a broth or jelly prepared from
portions of the same meat; corking the jars closely; incasing the
corks with a luting formed of quicksilver and cheese; placing the
corked jars in a boiler of cold water; boiling the water and its
contents for an hour; and then allowing the cooling process to
supervene very gradually.

Until the recent disclosures concerning the preserved meats in the
government depots, the extent of the manufacture, or rather
preparation, was very little known to the general public. In the last
week of 1851, an examination, consequent on certain suspicions which
had been entertained, was commenced at the victualling establishment
at Gosport. The canisters--for since Appert's time stone jars have
been generally superseded by tin canisters--contain on an average
about 10 pounds each; and out of 643 of these which were opened on the
first day's examination, no fewer than 573 were condemned as being
utterly unfit for food. On the next day, 734 were condemned out of
779; and by the fourth day, the number examined had risen to 2707, of
which only 197 were deemed fit for food. Such wretched offal had been
packed in the canisters, instead of good meat, that the stench arising
from the decomposing mass was most revolting; the examiners were
compelled to use Sir William Burnett's disinfecting fluid abundantly,
and even to suspend their labours for two or three days under fear of
infection. The canisters formed part of a supply sent in by a
contractor in November 1850, under a warrant that the contents would
remain good for five years; the filling of the canisters was
understood to have been effected at Galatz, in Moldavia, but the
contractor was in England. The