IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING ANIMAL OR VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES OR LIQUIDS, AND IN PREPARATIONS EMPLOYED THEREFOR AND CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John William Moore Miller at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th October, 1880.
JOHN WILLIAM MOORE MILLER, of Southsea, in the County of Hants, Doctor of
Medicine. "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING ANIMAL OR VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES
OR LIQUIDS, AND IN PREPARATIONS EMPLOYED THEREFOR AND CONNECTED
THEREWITH."
My Invention relates to processes and preparations for preventing putrifaction in
raw animal substances and fermentation in raw vegetable substances, and is there-
fore available for preserving all alimentary productions of the animal and vegetable
kingdoms; the Invention is further applicable to the preservation of broth or soup
as hereinafter more fully described.
The preparations for preserving the substances consist of the following
ingredients, viz. :-
:-
Diastase, glycerine, glucose, crystals of pure chloride of sodium, nitrate of potash,
common salt, salicylic acid, salicylate soda, acetic acid, sea water, distilled water or
pure water, honey, and grape sugar, any two or more of which are mixed together
with or without the aid of heat.
In applying the preparations the same are introduced into the substance to be
preserved, say, for example, meat, either by saturation or by immersion in a bath
containing either the whole of the ingredients which it is required to employ, or
first into a bath containing some of the ingredients and then into another bath
containing the remainder of the ingredients. This division is absolutely imperative
if the process of dialysis be adopted, wherein the meat joint or carcase may be used
as the septum in a convenient chamber or apparatus, the fluid charged with the
preserving ingredients permeating through to unite within the animal substance
and thereby preserving it, or the meat may be placed on one side of the septum or
between two septa or dialysers in any convenient chamber; or the meat may be
placed in an exhausted chain ber from which one or more atmospheres have been
removed, and the preserving fluid admitted according to the method usually
adopted when wood, leather, cotton, or other fibrous materials are exposed for a
waterproofing or preserving process, or pressure may be used whilst meat is in
vacuo. Or the preserving fluid may be introduced into the meat by injection by
the employment of a syringe with a needle having a perforating head, the needle

page_text: being hollow but with the apertures carefully arranged along the cylinder, whereby
the preserving fluid is injected above, below, and on each side of the instrument.
Poultry may be treated by either of the foregoing processes in a manner similar to
meat, fish, and fruit; vegetables require merely simple immersion more or less
prolonged, but can be equally well treated in vacuo.
For preserving meat I have found a composition consisting of the following
ingredients in about the undermentioned proportions, suitable in practice, viz. —
One pound of glycerine, one pound of glucose, one ounce of pure chloride of
sodium, or (in its absence) common salt, one ounce of salicylate of soda to every
gallon of water; these I boil together until they become blood red, when I allow
the mixture to cool, and it becomes fit for use in each of the processes hereinbefore
described except that of dialysis. For that purpose I boil the glycerine and
glucose in half the before-mentioned quantity of water, and I boil the acetic acid,
the chloride of sodium, and salicylate of soda in the remaining portion of water,
distilled water being preferred. When cool, and the meat properly placed in a con-
venient chamber, I pour one of the fluids on one side of the meat and the other
fluid on the other side of the meat, the fluids from being clear and colourless
gradually assume the blood red condition, shewing that a complete interchange or
dialysis has taken place of the ingredients through the ment, the process usually
occupying 48 hours, is complete; the meat may be drained and packed as desired,
and may be cooked according to the ordinary domestic methods.
After the substance has been, treated with the preparations hereinbefore
described it is covered with a protective coating consisting of the following
ingredients or materials, viz:-
Thymol, menthol, milk, chloroform, tallow, suet, gelatine, isinglass, glue, gum
Arabic, gum tragacanth, British gum or dextrine, starch, paraffin, vaseline, chrisona,
duroleum, honey, treacle, sugar, sulphate and bisulphide of lime, caoutchouc, gutta
percha, or with the aid of any of their solvents, tungstate soda, hydrochloric acid,
sulphurous acid, sulphur or any of its preparations, parchment, paper, stearine
paper, tin foil, gauze calico, rendered antiseptic by the use of thymol or menthol
and their solvents. The ingredients above mentioned are employed either singly
or in conjunction, and with or without the aid of heat for a coating to prevent
injury in preparing meats or fruits, vegetables, fish, poultry, and the like for con-
veyance to and presentation in the markets. Large quantities of preserved meat
and fish may be packed in casks, galvanised iron tanks, boxes of tin, or wood lined
with tin; in such cases I use, as an external preservative from mould or mildew,
acetic acid three parts, sulphurous acid two parts, and glycerine or glucose two
parts or thereabouts, as a solution freely painted over, or a powder consisting of
equal parts of gum tragacanth, and milk of sulphur, freely dusted over. For
a deodorant, when required, I use ground coffee previously well roasted, and
heated a second time after grinding.
In order to render soup imperishable, I boil down in a digester such portions of
meat as are not applicable for joints, in the proportion of 6 lbs. or thereabouts of
meat to a gallon of my preservative fluid, when a rich soup results, which may be
flavoured to taste and kept for an indefinite time in vessels properly covered and
protected from bacteria or other larger insects or vermin. The covering is not
necessary to preserve it from putrifaction, but from destruction.