§ LVIII.
General Observations.
From this detail of experiments, it is obvious that this new method of preserving animal and vegetable substance, proceeds from the simple principle of applying heat in a due degree to the several substances, after having deprived them as much as possible of all contact with the external air.
It might on the first view of the subject be thought that a substance, either raw or previously acted upon by fire, and afterwards put into bottles, might, if a vacuum were made in those bottles and they were completely corked, be preserved equally well with the application of heat in the water-bath. This would be an error, for all the trials I have made have convinced me that the absolute privation of the contact of external air (the internal air being rendered of no effect by the action of heat), and the application of heat by means of the water-bath, are both indispensable to the complete preservation of alimentary substances.
My object is not like that of the Bourdeaux chymists, to disunite the component parts of the animal substance, and obtain the animal jelly in a separate state, as well as the animal fibre, free from its juice, and so made to resemble tanned leather. Neither is it my endeavour to furnish at a great expence, as in the preparation of portable soup, a tenacious paste or glue, better adapted to derange the stomach than to provide it with a salutary nourishment.
My problem is, to preserve all nutritive substances with all their peculiar and constituent qualities. My experiments prove that I have resolved this problem.[S]
It is to the solution of this problem that I have devoted my fortune and twenty years of labour and meditation. Happy that I have already been able to render service to my fellow citizens and humanity, I rely on the justice, generosity and intelligence of a wise government, which never fails to encourage useful discoveries. That government will perceive that the inventor of this method of preservation could not obtain from the invention itself an indemnification for his labour and expence. The chief importance of this process lies in its subservience to the wants of civil and military hospitals, and particularly of the Navy. It is in these departments of the public service that my process may be employed in a manner advantageous to the state, and it is from them that I may receive the just reward of my labours. I expect every thing from the beneficent views of the minister, and my expectations will not be disappointed.