IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLUID MEAT
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Stephen Darby, of No. 140, Leadenhall Street, in
the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF FLUID MEAT."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Stephen Darby at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd August 1870.
I, STEPHEN DARBY, of No. 140, Leadenhall Street, in the City of
London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLUID MEAT," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture
of fluid meat.
It is known that lean" animal flesh when digested with pepsin, hydro-
chloric (or some other) acid and water at a temperature of about 100°
Fahrenheit undergoes a change; the large proportion of it, which under.

page_text: ordinary circumstances is insoluble, being thus rendered capable of
solution in water, and the solution so obtained by digesting meat with
pepsin, hydrochloric acid, and water has been neutralized and evaporated
to an extract or to a dry state; but in this process of artificial digestion,
as it has been called, the preparation acquires a bitter taste rendering
it objectionable or unfit for human food. I find, however, that the
admixture of a portion of pancreas or sweetbread, or a preparation
thereof, or a fluid obtained therefrom, to the liquid obtained by digestion
removes the bitterness. The sweetbread of any animal fit for human
food may
be employed, and either finely minced, or in other convenient
form or preparation it may be added to the liquid when it has been
neutralized, either immediately after digestion, or subsequently when it
has been partially evaporated. I take by preference the sweetbread of
the ox, cow, calf, or sheep, and employ it in the proportion of one ounce
to every pound weight of lean meat. After the addition of the sweet-
bread I allow the mixture to. stand for a time at a temperature of about
100° Fahrenheit, I then boil, filter, and evaporate.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Stephen Darby in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 21st February 1871..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, STEPHEN
DARBY, of No. 140, Leadenhall Street, in the City of London, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of August, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the
thirty-fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Stephen Darby, Her special
license that I, the said Stephen Darby, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Stephen Darby, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN The Manu-

page_text: FACTURE OF FLUID MEAT," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Stephen Darby, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven
tion, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the
same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Stephen Darby, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
_
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture
of fluid meat.
It is known that lean animal flesh when digested with pepsin, hydro-
chloric (or some other) acid and water at a temperature of about 100°
Fahrenheit, undergoes a change; the large proportion of it, which under
ordinary circumstances is insoluble, being thus rendered capable of
solution in water, and the solution so obtained by digesting meat with
pepsin, bydrochloric acid, and water has been neutralized and evaporated
to an extract or to a dry state. But in this process of artificial digestion,
as it has been called, the preparation acquires a bitter taste rendering
it objectionable or unfit for human food. I find, however, that the
admixture of a portion of pancreas or sweetbread, or a preparation
thereof, or a fluid obtained therefrom, to the liquid obtained by digestion
removes the bitterness. The sweetbread of any animal fit for human
food may be employed, and either finely minced or in other convenient
form or preparation, it may be added to the liquid when it has been
neutralized, either immediately after digestion or subsequently when it
has been partially evaporated. The most convenient method of pro-
cedure I find is to take lean meat. I usually employ beef finely sliced
or minced, as for sausage making, and digest it in water containing
about one and a half per cent. of hydrochloric acid of pharmacopoeia
strength with pepsin in the proportion of a quarter of an ounce to every
pound of meat. I use two gallons of water to a pound of meat and
digest.at a temperature of 100° Fahrenheit. When solution has taken
place I neutralize the acid with carbonate of soda, and add for each
pound of meat employed one ounce of finely minced pancreas (say, of
ox, cow, calf, or sheep) and again digest at 100° Fahrenheit until the

page_text: bitterness is removed, filter and evaporate the liquid to a convenient
consistence.
The proportions and method of procedure above set forth may be varied,
but I claim as my Invention the use of pancreas in the manufacture of
fluid meat, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Stephen Darby, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of February, in the year
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.