88 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
ambition of Napoleon, is as nothing compared to the myriads of 
persons who have sunk into their graves from a misplaced 
confidence in the food-value of Beef-tea!” Nevertheless, by 
adding to the Beef-tea the exhausted fibrous solids of the meat, 
care being taken to reduce these to a state of fine division, the 
nutritive qualities of the tea can be materially increased; so 
that what is termed a “whole Beef-tea” is thus beneficially 
produced. Ordinary Beef-tea, however well made, is only a 
cordial stimulant, and not a sustaining food. It may be mixed 
with chicken-broth (which actually does hold albuminous 
constituents in solution), and will then represent useful sustenance. 
Beef juices, expressed from raw, lean meat, differ from meat 
extracts obtained by heat, in still containing the proteids (or 
prime solids) of the meat, now uncoagulated; but (says a high 
authority) none of these juices can be taken in a sufficiently large 
quantity to supply much proteid to the body. Summing up 
the question of the value which extractives of Beef, and of other 
red meats stand entitled to claim, Dr. Hutchison gives it as his 
dictum that “ they cannot renew the tissues, or supply the body 
with energy, and therefore are not foods. They pass out of 
the body through the kidneys in the same form in which they 
entered it; they do not act as restorative stimulants to the 
heart, though they may possibly help to remove fatigue; and 
yet they are powerful aids to digestion by calling out a free flow 
of gastric juice from within the stomach, whilst their pleasant 
flavour serves to arouse the appetite. The only means of getting 
the full value of Beef in small bulk is by the use of the dried 
meat powders.” A solution of the white of egg flavoured with 
sound meat-extract forms a cheap and efficient substitute for the 
juices of raw, lean Beef. 
In South Africa, Beef is prepared to make what is known there 
as “ biltong,” which, with bread and butter, is very appetizing 
for invalids, and most nourishing. The Beef, when cut out in 
a long, tongue-shaped strip from the hind leg of an ox (from 
the thigh-bone to the knee-joint), is then rubbed with some 
salt, some brown sugar, and an ounce of saltpetre. This 
rubbing, and then turning, is continued daily for three days, 
after which time the meat is put under a press for a night ; it is 
next dried in the wind, and then hung in the chimney until still 
drier, and pretty firm. When eaten it is to be cut into very 
thin slices, or rasped.+ Persons suffering from sea-sickness on 
