An Improved Method or Means of Preserving and Preventing the Putrefaction of Animal and Vegetable Substances.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 8th Dec., 1837
Specification Accepted, 27th Jan.,
1888
An Improved Method or Means of Preserving and Preventing the
Putrefaction of Animal and Vegetable Substances.
We CHARLES COLLIN of 15 Rue Quincampoix Paris, (Manufacturer of Chemical
Products) and LUCIEN BENOIST of 49 Rue de l'Alesia Paris (Assistant Micrographer
to the Observatory of Mont Souris) do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
-
Our Invention relates to an improved process for the preservation and antiseptic
treatment of animal and vegetable substances. Under the influence of ferments
contained in the atmosphere, all animal and vegetable substances and residues
thereof quickly enter into fermentation and putrefaction which, besides the loss
incurred, involves danger to health. Among the many putrefiable organic substances
to which our antiseptic treatment is applicable, may be mentioned green hides, bones..
horns, feathers, slaughter house refuse, gelatine or animal glues, vegetable glues,
albumens, wools, vegetable infusions such as tanners liquors, extracts of tannin, dye
wood extracts, dry tanned and untanned hides, sewage waters, and foecal matters. We
have found that a large dose of some of the antiseptic agents applied to the above
mentioned organic matters, exerts only a doubtful or transitory action while others
although preventing the development of bacteria, do not prevent mouldiness or else
they alter the nature of or precipitate, the matters to be sterilized with which they are
brought into contact. The use of these known agents is, therefore, to be avoided
either on account of their inefficacious action or their high price. Salts of mercury
possess great antiseptic power, but the greater number of them do not prevent mouldi-
ness, while many are precipitated by alkalies. An antiseptic, to be of practical value,
should not only oppose the vivification of germs and consequently prevent fermenta-
tion, but should also arrest fermentation when declared, by destroying all the germs
which have caused it. Moreover, the antiseptic should not be precipitated either by
acids or alkalies, nor should it itself precipitate or injuriously affect the matters to be
sterilised with which it is brought in contact.
Among the salts of mercury there exists a combination of this metal with iodine
which we have found to be a most powerful antiseptic possessing all the properties

page_text: The first category would comprise gelatine, animal, or vegetable glues, albumens,
vegetable infusions, tanners' liquors, tanning extracts and solutions, dye wood extracts,
sewage and other waste waters and local matters.
To gelatine, animal, or vegetable glues in solution or liquefied by heat, we add
about 5 grain of mercuric iodide in solution per litre of said liquids. The same
dose may also be employed for albumen, while for vegetable infusions and tanning
liquors, the proportion would vary according to their richness in fermentable elements
but would not appear to exceed 15 to 3 grains of mercuric iodide per litre. For
tanning extracts and dye extracts, the preferable dose is 15 grains per litre.
With the addition of these antiseptics, these different bodies preserve all their
original properties and are neither liable to fermentation nor to mouldiness. This is
important for gelatines which ferment and become sour during dessication, and more
especially for tannins and tanning extracts which under the action of spontaneous
fermentation, lose the greater part of the tannin they contain, which becomes converted
into gallic acid and is no longer suitable for use in tanning; similarly, dye extracts
lose the greater part of their richness in coloring matters.
The antiseptic, by preventing the alteration of the extracts both before and during
their use, will thus save a loss amounting in many cases to 50 per cent. of material
while it also accelerates the operation as the extracts are not weakened.
The second category would include green hides, bones, horns, feathers, slaughter-
house refuse, leather, dry hides, &c. Green or depilated hides, bones and horns are to
be immersed for from 12 to 24 hours in water containing 155 grains of mercuric
iodide per litre. The liquor is not exhausted and retains its anti-septic properties.
We therefore estimate that from 15 to 30 grains will suffice to arrest the fermentation
of a fresh oxhide, and the hide thus treated and afterwards dried will be preserved
indefinitely, while any carbuncular or other germs of disease which the animal might
have contracted, will be destroyed. A solution of 155 grains per litre is sufficient to
sterilise bones and horns and prevent putrefaction. For leathers and dry hides, a
solution containing 31 grains of mercuric iodide per litre of water would be used
which would be applied with a brush, or in other suitable manner. Residues of
slaughterhouses, entrails, &c., should be placed in a solution of mercuric iodide con-
taining from 7 to 15 grains of mercuric iodide per litre. The liquid can be used over
again until the anti-septic it contains is exhausted, or it may be preserved in its
original strength and used a great number of times by adding as much of the anti-
septic as is abstracted by the substances treated.
The treatment of slaughterhouse refuse is important as it usually ferments, involv

page_text: ing a loss of the gelatine and the then necessary treatment with acids causes the tallow
to be attached. But if prevented from fermenting the gelatine remains intact and
may afterwards be extracted together with the tallow which, as the anti-septic, is
insoluble therein, may be used without risk for any purpose desired. As fermentation
is entirely prevented, the considerable losses incurred from this cause is avoided ;
moreover an important end is obtained from a hygienic point of view by the destruc-
tion of all kinds of noxious germs and the formation of centres of infection prevented.
The proportions of the anti-septic are mentioned by way of example and may be
increased or reduced according to their richness or degree of dilution and the
conditions of the treatment. Thus the larger the amount of the putrifiable elements
contained in the matters treated the larger should be the dose of anti-septic employed
until the point is reached when the matter itself by its concentration, resists all
fermentation whatever. Thus a highly concentrated extract would only require 15
grains of antiseptic, while the same extract diluted in 100 litres of water would
require three times as much. It may thus be said that the dose of antiseptic
employed increases in direct proportion to the degree of dilution of the fermentible
matter and in inverse ratio to its degree of concentration.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is:
The employment for preserving and preventing the fermentation of animal and
vegetable substances generally, and particularly of those herein mentioned, of the
iodides of mercury and especially mercuric iodide rendered soluble by the use in com-
bination therewith, of an alkaline iodide such as iodide of potassium, substantially as
hereinbefore specified.
C. COLLIN,
L. BENOIST.
A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London,
Patent Agents.