360 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Chap. IV. 



]ileasureaud profit. "We shall (Irawupon its val liable store-lioiisc of knowledge 

 for otlier facts in confirination of what wc iiave to say upon the food question. 



3S(i. How the Albumnu of .llrat is l]\tractc<h— Wluii we wish to dissolve 

 out the albumen, and not the gelatin of meat, for soup or for beef-tea, which 

 is much used as nutritive food for the sick, the meat should be cut line — the 

 liner the better — and soaked a few minutes in an equal weight of cold water, 

 then slowly heated to boiling, and so continued a tew minutes more, and 

 . \vhcn strained you will have as much weight of pure extract as you had of 

 meat, and it will aflibrd equal nutriment. It would not do so if boiled for 

 hours, in a large mass. Hence, meat for soups should be iineh- divided. 

 The effect of long boiling of meat for souji is to thicken the soup, and nniko 

 it apparently richer; but it is so only apparently. The albumen is extracted 

 by cold water. It is cooked in the water in as short a time as an egg would 

 cook. The substance extracted by long boiling, making the soup ajipcar 

 thick when cold, is gelatin. Still further boiling would make glue, which 

 would harden by drying, like the glue of commerce. It is not considered a 

 nutritious kind of tbod. 



381. French Experini?nts wilh Gciatinoms Food.—" The French attempted 

 to feed the inmates of their hospitals on gelatinous extract of bones ; mur- 

 murs arose, and a commission was appointed, with Magendie at its head, to 

 investigate the matter, the conclusion of which was, that giving gelatin to 

 the poor was just ecpiivalent to giving them nothing at all. The use of 

 gelatin as a nutritive or invigoi-ating substance niay be regarded as given 

 up. The utmost claim now put forth for it is that, mixed with other food, it 

 makes it go further ; but at the same time we must be careful not to use it 

 to excess, as it is apt not only to weaken the individual by its insufficiency 

 as an article of diet, but causes also diarrhea, whether by acting as a foreign 

 body, or by some spontaneous decomposition. Ilcnco the unwholcsnmoness, 

 to healthy stomachs, of dishes containing a great quantity of gelatin, such 

 as mock-turtle soup, calves'-foot jelly, etc." 



The healthiness of any kind of strong meat soup is not a matter of doubt 

 in the minds of those who have given the subject a thought. It may be 

 taken in small quantities at the beginning of a meal, when it will be imme- 

 diately followed with fibrous food; but the appetite never should be sat- 

 isfied upon soup alone, unless it is soujy-maigre, or soup made almost entirely 

 of vegetables. 



3S2. Relative Values of Food for giving Warmth or making FJesh. — The fol- 

 lowing table shows Liel)ig's estimate of the proportion of warmth-giving 

 substances to the flesh-producing substances in various articles. Basing the 

 flesh-producing power at 10, each of the following articles gives the propor- 

 tion of warmth-producing power set opposite. 



Rye flour 57 



Bariey ttl 



Human milk 40 



Cows milk 30 



Lentils 21 



Horse beans 22 



Teas 2:! 



Fat mutton 27 



Fat pork 30 



Beef 17 



Hare 2 



Veal 1 



Wheat (lour 4fl 



Oatmeal 50 



White potatoes 86 



Black potatoes 1 1 -5 



Rice 125 



Buckwheat ISO 



