Specification of Thaddeus Hyatt : preparing and preserving substances for dietary and medicinal uses.

  • Hyatt, Thaddeus.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of Thaddeus Hyatt : preparing and preserving substances for dietary and medicinal uses. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Hyatfs Impts. in Preparing ^ Substances for Dietary Uses, ^c. qualities in forms and under conditions that better fit them for use as medicines and food than as generally employed, for example, minerals when used medicinally are commonly adminstered in their natural or inorganic state; but according to my improvement I first bring the mineral (iron for instance) into a soluble condition, say a salt of iron; 5 this salt I dissolve in water and apply or feed to the roots of a growing plant fit to be eaten as food. A mineral thus absorded into the tissues of a plant becomes digestible or food, because vitalized with the life of the plant of which it forms a part. According to another part of my Invention my improvement consists 10 in a method of dry impregnation. In this process I make use of an aromatizing vessel A, Eigure 1, in which I place the medicinal substance B (camphor for example) with the absorbent food C, which may be dried rusk or biscuit, or dried bread reduced to powder or dust, sugar, or other nutritious food. In some cases, as in that of camphor for 15 example, the medicinal substance will be bodily absorbed, the whole of it disappearing, in others the aroma or essence only or soul of the medicine will be absorbed. In some cases I find it abvantageous to conduct the operation in vacuo by pumping out or otherwise with¬ drawing the air; and in some cases I find it useful to employ heat. 20 Desiccating.—^According to another part'of my Invention, my improve¬ ment consists in a method of desiccating substances or bodies for use as food, or with reference to their preservation; in the case of human bodies, the preservation being a sanitary measure, the method consisting in placing the substance or body to be acted on in a heated absorbent 25 earth or other absorbing material, and keeping it therein subjected to heat ujitil dry, and in some cases until reduced to powder or dust. In carrying this part of my Invention into effect I find it convenient to make use of a drying chamber A, Eigure 2, in the upper part of which a, a, upon the bottom portion thereof or table b, b,l place the substance 30 or body B to be dried upon a layer or bed c, c, of absorbent material adapted to the nature of the substance or body to be dried out. In the case of vegetables, fruits, flesh, and fish, I prefer in some cases to employ an absorbent fit to be afterwards used for food, such for example as baked or dried flour, bread, or similar substance, the absorbent when 35 so employed catching and retaining the flavor or quality of the dried out material. When roasting coffee by this process I sometimes mix it with clean sand, the heat being gradually raised to the roasting point,