As the animal food proteins are exceedingly putrescible, they are usually consumed within a short time of the animal being killed. It is perhaps natural, therefore, that many efforts have been made to discover means of preserving such foods. These efforts form the basis of some important industries, and though they can hardly be included as chemical industries, it will not be out of place in this volume to point out that these efforts present analogies with, as well as differences from the methods used for preserving hides and skins (Part I., Section I.). The curing of hides and skins is a temporary preservation from putrefaction until the opportunity is convenient for the permanent preservation (_i.e._ tannage). The preservation of meats is analogous to curing inasmuch as more drastic treatment might indeed make them non-putrescible, but would also render them indigestible and unsuitable for food. Thus drying, salting, drying and salting, pickling and freezing, are just as suitable for preserving food proteins as for hide and skin proteins. Hence we have dried meats, salt bacon, pickled beef, frozen mutton, etc. To a limited extent smoking (fish, bacon, etc.) has been employed as a cure. When it has been applied to skins it is usually combined with a fat tannage. There is, however, one method of preservation of proteins, inapplicable to skins, which has been eminently successful and useful for food proteins, viz. sterilization by boiling. The food has been placed in tins, hermetically sealed, and thoroughly sterilized. Hence have appeared corned beef, tinned tongue, sardines, etc., which merely illustrate the immense possibilities involved. A noteworthy advantage of this method of preserving animal food proteins, is that the food is already cooked and prepared for immediate consumption. Another line of effort is the preparation of concentrated foods. Just as animal foods are on the whole more concentrated in protein than vegetable foods, so these prepared animal foods are more concentrated than animal flesh, and generally also more soluble. Such preparations of animal protein are obviously useful when there is difficulty in swallowing and when journeys are necessary into regions of poor food supply. It is a little doubtful, one must say, whether the concentration is as great in some cases as is claimed.