It is important that meat should be hung long enough for it to become tender before cooking, and as the changes that bring about the wholesome softening of meat are quite distinct from the operations of the bacteria that are concerned in ordinary decomposition, it is possible to do this even in the hottest weather provided that means are taken to suspend bacterial action. “Wyvern” in his invaluable “Culinary Jottings from Madras,”[1] a book which should be possessed and carefully studied by every tropical housewife, concludes with what he terms “The last and most worthy recipe of all.” “It is not generally known that the fumes of sulphur prevent the rapid decomposition of animal matter and that tender meat can be had, in the hottest weather, by exposing the joint to the fumes of burning pastiles in an air-tight box for two or three hours after being brought from market. A joint thus treated will keep perfectly for thirty-six hours, even in Madras, and will be found deliciously tender the day after it is purchased. Take--sulphur, 2 lbs., powdered charcoal, 1¹⁄₂ oz., saltpetre, 2 oz.[2] Mix, and add just enough gum water to shape them into pastiles of conical form. A roomy tin-lined packing case, fitted with hooks to suspend the meat, and with a well-fitting door, which can be easily made air-tight by means of strips of felt nailed round the edge, is all that is required. Suspend the meat, place two or three pastiles below it, light them, close the door securely and leave well alone.” The writer has personally tested this plan, and can answer for its excellence; and also that, once the appliance has been obtained, its use involves, practically speaking, no trouble whatever, as it is just as easy to store the meat in this way as in an ordinary safe. [1] Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co., 1885. [2] These pastiles can be made up by any chemist, and used to be stocked by Waldie and Co., of Cawnpore. Under the debilitating influences of prolonged heat the digestive powers are never too strong, so that it is taxing them too far to ask of them to digest the quasi leather that has to pass for meat in tropical weather, unless measures of this sort be adopted; and health, it must be remembered, depends largely upon good digestion.