however, no doubt that, if the articles be selected with care, and the process be properly conducted, M. Appert's method of preserving food is a valuable invention. If the contractor be careless or dishonest, the most fearful consequences might ensue to the crews of ships victualled with preserved meats. It appears, from a recent examination of several thousand canisters of the preserved meat of the Navy at Portsmouth, England, that their contents were masses of putrefaction, consisting of meat, &c., which, even in a fresh state, ought never to be used as food. It is stated that this preserved meat was supplied from Galatz, in Moldavia. [Illustration] In 1842, M. Appert's method was made the subject of a further patent, granted to Mr. Bevan, whose process consisted in expelling air from the cases containing the food, by placing such cases in connection with a vacuum chamber, or other exhausting apparatus, and also with a vessel containing gelatine or other suitable fluid material, in such a manner that, by opening the communications, the air escapes into the exhausting apparatus and the gelatine takes its place. By this method the high temperature previously used in preserving food was not required; it could, on the contrary, be cooked at very low temperatures, and in a space almost void of air. The apparatus used is shown in section, in the following figure: A is a vessel open at the top, and filled to the line _i_ with fluid gelatine, having a pipe _j_, and a stopcock _e_ firmly attached to it. B is a sphere of metal in which a vacuum is produced by blowing steam through it by the pipe _l_ out through _k_; _l_ and _k_ are then closed, and a jet of water at _m_, applied to the outside of the sphere, condenses the steam and leaves a vacuum within it. The substance to be preserved is inclosed within a cylindrical tin vessel C, the top of which is then soldered on, and two small metal pipes _d_ and _c_ passed into it air-tight, as far as _a b_; the other ends being secure to the pipes _j j_ at _h h_. The case is next immersed in a water-bath N, at a temperature of about 120°, and by turning the cock _f_, the greater portion of the air in the case C rushes into B; the article of food, animal or vegetable, in the case, being thus relieved of atmospheric pressure, the heat of 120° is sufficient to cook it, and to expel the air from it. A fowl is cooked in this way in about fifteen minutes. The cock _e_ is then opened, and the gelatine, kept fluid by the warm bath P, enters by the pipes _j_ and _c_, into the case C, and drives the small portion of air left therein into the vacuum chamber B. The case C is then hermetically sealed by nipping the tubes _d_ and _c_ at the points _g g_. The case is then submitted for a few minutes to the action of boiling water (thirty minutes for a fowl), and when cool, the process is complete.