| 摘要 |
The hypobaric preservation of non-respiring animal matter without the step of adding fresh air to the storage chamber, and without humidifying the storage atmosphere by contacting it with a supplementary body of heated water, is hereby disclosed, characterized by storage at a controlled temperature correlated to the type of animal matter, by a hypobaric pressure slightly less than the vapor pressure of water at said storage temperature, and by evacuation at a controlled rate correlated to the storage temperature and the weight of stored animal matter. The evacuation rate preferably is set to pump nearly saturated steam from the vacuum tank at a rate which exhausts an amount of water equal to about 1% of the initial weight of the animal matter each month. Heat is continuously supplied to the non-respiring animal matter responsive to the temperature of said matter and sufficient to evaporate said amount of water and prevent the non-respiring animal matter from freezing responsive to this amount of evaporative cooling. Said preferred rate of evaporation creates a slight vapor pressure gradient between the animal matter and moisture in the chamber atmosphere, causing the chamber pressure to be lower than the vapor pressure of water at the storage temperature. The water activity at the surface of the animal matter is decreased proportionate to said vapor pressure lowering, inhibiting superficial microbial growth on the animal matter.
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