72 ALIMENTATION. 



they are best distributed in the mass. Thus the best 

 butchers' meat presents in many parts between the muscular 

 fibres an interposition of fat, which gives them the appear- 

 ance of a whitish marbling." ] 



Taking the above as the type of the composition of the 

 meats, it is evident that enough variety is here presented to 

 answer the purposes of nutrition. The carnivora habitually 

 live upon meat as the sole article of food, and examples are 

 not wanting in which life is sustained in the same way in 

 the human subject. 



The composition of meat is somewhat modified by cook- 

 ing. Odorous and flavoring principles are developed, which 

 render it more agreeable, and the inter-muscular areolar 

 tissue is softened, by which it is rendered somewhat more 

 digestible. The following analyses were made by Payen of 

 beef-steaks, about 1J in. thick, cut from the tenderloin, ex- 

 empt apparently from adipose tissue. 2 



Composition of Cooked Beef-steaks. 



100 parts gave by analysis the following quantities of water, carbon, nitro- 

 gen, of fatty and mineral substances : 



"Water. Carbon. Nitrogen. Fatty Matters. Mineral Substances. 



69-89 16-76 3-528 5-19 1-05 



Immediate Composition. Cooked Meat. Dry Substance. 



Water 69-89 O'OO 



Nitrogenized matters 22-93 76-18 



Fatty substances 5-19 17-25 



Mineral substances 1'05 3-50 



Non-nitrogenized substances, sulphur, and loss 1-04 (0-94 ?) 3-07 



100-00 100-00 



The composition of other varieties of meat being so much 

 like that of beef, does not demand special consideration. 



1 PAYEN, op. cit., p. 67. 



2 Op. cit., p. 92. 



In the admirable work of Payen, one of the most complete and exhaustive 

 treatises on alimentary substances in any language, we find (page 71) a quotation 

 from remarks made by Chevreul in a discussion at the Imperial and Central So- 



