COMPOUND ALIMENTARY SUBSTANCES. 73 



The preparation of meat by cooking, and the methods which 

 are employed for its preservation are important, and will be 

 taken up hereafter. A point in this connection which has 

 particular physiological and therapeutical interest is the 

 preparation of soups and animal essences. 



Mutton ranks next to beef as an agreeable and nutritive 

 meat. Nearly all parts of the muscular system of the sheep 

 are habitually used as food. It is difficult to establish any 

 great difference in* its nutritive properties from beef; but if 

 taken constantly, without any variation, it is more apt to 

 become distasteful a fact which is important, as showing 

 that it is hardly capable of supplying indefinitely that vari- 

 ety of alimentary matter which is so universally demanded. 

 The flesh of the ram is coarse and of rather a disagreeable 

 flavor ; but the same may be said of many male animals that 

 have not been castrated. The flesh of the goat is somewhat 

 similar to mutton, but is less esteemed. 



Next to mutton may be placed pork. This kind of meat 

 is, perhaps, most frequently used after it has been preserved 

 by salting or smoking ; but it is often used fresh, and 

 if thoroughly and properly cooked, it is an agreeable and 

 nutritious article. The palate will not tolerate fresh pork 

 as constantly as cured ham, bacon, shoulders, etc. It is to 

 be remembered that cured pork occasionally contains the 

 trichina spiralis, and when taken into the stomach un- 



ciety of Agriculture of France, on the means of increasing the production of 

 cattle. Chevreul gives the precedence, as a reparative meat, to beef, and 

 takes, for purposes of comparison, as an example of beef of the first quality, an 

 ox, from seven to nine years old, which, after having been worked at the ordi- 

 nary labor of beasts of that kind, was fattened before being given to the butch- 

 er. He expresses the opinion that the meat of animals of mature age, exposed 

 to the fresh air, and in an absolutely normal condition, is better than that of 

 " precocious " animals, or those that have been fattened with abnormal rapidity. 

 This is an important point to consider in the selection of all kinds of meat. A 

 considerable amount of fat, especially interstitial fat, is desirable, as it renders the 

 meat more tender ; but aside from this, it is safe to assume that the highest 

 physiological condition of the animal imparts to the flesh the most desirable prop- 

 erties as an article of food. 



