My answer to your questions concerning the mode of rendering meat
tender by electricity, can only be founded upon conjecture; for I
have not experiments enough to warrant the facts. All that I can
say at present is, that I think electricity might be employed for
this purpose, and I shall state what follows as the observations or
reasons, which make me presume so.
It has been observed, that lightning, by rarefying and reducing
into vapour the moisture contained in solid wood, in an oak, for
instance, has forcibly separated its fibres, and broken it into small
splinters; that by penetrating intimately the hardest metals, as
iron, it has separated the parts in an instant, so as to convert a
perfect solid into a state of fluidity: it is not then improbable,
that the same subtile matter, passing through the bodies of animals
with rapidity, should possess sufficient force to produce an effect
nearly similar.
The flesh of animals, fresh killed in the usual manner, is firm,
hard, and not in a very eatable state, because the particles adhere
too forcibly to each other. At a certain period, the cohesion is
weakened and in its progress towards putrefaction, which tends to
produce a total separation, the flesh becomes what we call tender, or
is in that state most proper to be used as our food.
It has frequently been remarked, that animals killed by lightning
putrify immediately. This cannot be invariably the case, since a
quantity of lightning sufficient to kill, may not be sufficient to
tear and divide the fibres and particles of flesh, and reduce them to
that tender state, which is the prelude to putrefaction. Hence it is,
that some animals killed in this manner will keep longer than others.
But the putrefaction sometimes proceeds with surprising celerity.
A respectable person assured me, that he once knew a remarkable
instance of this: A whole flock of sheep in Scotland, being closely
assembled under a tree, were killed by a flash of lightning; and
it being rather late in the evening, the proprietor, desirous of
saving something, sent persons early the next morning to flay them;
but the putrefaction was such, and the stench so abominable, that
they had not the courage to execute their orders, and the bodies
were accordingly buried in their skins. It is not unreasonable to
presume, that between the period of their death and that of their
putrefaction, a time intervened in which the flesh might be only
tender, and only sufficiently so to be served at table. Add to this,
that persons, who have eaten of fowls killed by our feeble imitation
of lightning (electricity) and dressed immediately, have asserted,
that the flesh was remarkably tender.
The little utility of this practice has perhaps prevented its being
much adopted. For though it sometimes happens, that a company
unexpectedly arriving at a country-house, or an unusual conflux of
travellers to an inn, may render it necessary, to kill a number
of animals for immediate use; yet as travellers have commonly a
good appetite, little attention has been paid to the trifling
inconvenience of having their meat a little tough. As this kind of
death is nevertheless more sudden, and consequently less severe, than
any other, if this should operate as a motive with compassionate
persons to employ it for animals sacrificed for their use, they may
conduct the process thus:
Having prepared a battery of six large glass jars (each from 20 to
24 pints) as for the Leyden experiment, and having established a
communication, as usual, from the interior surface of each with the
prime conductor, and having given them a full charge (which with a
good machine may be executed in a few minutes, and may be estimated
by an electrometer) a chain which communicates with the exterior of
the jars must be wrapped round the thighs of the fowl; after which
the operator, holding it by the wings, turned back and made to touch
behind, must raise it so high that the head may receive the first
shock from the prime conductor. The animal dies instantly. Let the
head be immediately cut off to make it bleed, when it may be plucked
and dressed immediately. This quantity of electricity is supposed
sufficient for a turkey of ten pounds weight, and perhaps for a
lamb. Experience alone will inform us of the requisite proportions
for animals of different forms and ages. Probably not less will be
required to render a small bird, which is very old, tender, than for
a larger one, which is young. It is easy to furnish the requisite
quantity of electricity, by employing a greater or less number of
jars. As six jars, however, discharged at once, are capable of giving
a very violent shock, the operator must be very circumspect, lest he
should happen to make the experiment on his own flesh, instead of
that of the fowl.