1893.] dlJ [BacLe. 



simple fact was then observed unreflectiugly, to be later collated -with 

 other observed facts, from which in sum I drew the conclusion to which 

 this paper points. Intermediately I learned (chiefly through Brillat 

 Savarin's famous work on the physiology of taste) of the great gustatory 

 value of osraazome as a culinary product, but without reference to its 

 dietetic value. This, perhaps, it was that prompted me mentally to revert 

 to my former mountain experiences, when I had seen osmazome developed 

 to the highest degree of excellence that I have ever met, and thereupon 

 other facts connected with the roasting and baking of meat fell into line, 

 leading to the conclusion to which I have referred. 



These facts resolved themselves finally into two coordinated ones, open 

 to the observation of any one who has lived in a time which combined 

 roasting meat with the Dutch-oven (sometimes called the tin-kitchen) and 

 baking it in the ordinary household oven. We may observe in the three 

 methods of cooking mentioned, tliat in the open air, that in the Dutch- 

 oven, and that in the ordinary oven, two steps of degradation. What, 

 then, makes the difference in their products, when the substances sub- 

 mitted to tlie heat, being essentially the same, can possess no difference in 

 heat-ray selective capacity ? It seems to me, obviously, to be caused by 

 the diminution, in two of these processes, of the presence of pure air ; that 

 is to say, the deficiency of oxygen, with sufficient aqueous vapor, in asso- 

 ciation with these processes. Oxygen seems to me, for two reasons, to 

 be the prime factor in the best effect, because that effect seems analogous 

 to other effects in the presence of oxygen, and because nitrogen is recog- 

 nized as a very inert gas. I do not believe that the effect would be pro- 

 duced at all in a vacuum. Staled in final terms, the perfect development 

 of osmazome in roasting depends, in my view, upon the roast's being 

 immersed in a copious and ever-changing l)ath of pure air, causing what 

 may be termed oxygenation of the meat. 



With the Dutch-oven, the air bath is copious and changing, but it is de- 

 rived from the kitchen, full of effete matter in suspension, and in a 

 measure deoxygenaled by breathing, and sometimes by artificial lights. 

 With the ordinary oven, the same objectionable conditions, in lesser degree, 

 attend the process of baking meat, but their diminution is more than compen- 

 sated l>y tlie circumstance that all the waste products are for the most part 

 confined within the narrow limits of the oven, and the juices of the meat 

 evaporate, on account of the lack of moisture in the deficiency of aqueous 

 vapor in the air. Hence we have, to take the extreme case, the average 

 farm meat-product of the oven, with the osmazome of the exterior 

 utterly destroyed in a black crisp, and even with the Dutch-oven, unless 

 with ceaseless basting, a product far inferior to that of the Homeric 

 method. 



I need not pause to descant upon the value of osmazome as a constituent 

 of meat, to be developed, not to be destroyed or impaired by the process 

 of cooking. You are all aware that it consists of various principles, found 

 sometimes even in vegetable substance, combined with cmpyreumatic pro- 



