150 



MEAT. 



from purin is desired. Eggs with milk in which the amount of 

 purin is very small, together with butter and cheese, makes a diet 

 almost entirely free from purin free or bound. 



MEAT. 



Meat is the flesh of such vertebrate animals as are used for 

 food, though the term is perhaps commonly restricted to the mus- 

 cular tissue of mammals. It is the kind of food from which the 

 nitrogen necessary for nutrition is chiefly obtained. In meat there 

 are not only connective and adipose tissue, in addition to muscular 

 fiber, but even in the leanest meat there are fat-cells between the 

 muscular fibers. 



In the following table (Munk) are given the percentages in 

 which the various constituents occur in the meats of the common 

 mammals used as food, together with those of fowl and pike. 



We have already discussed the chemical composition of muscle 

 (p. 62), and therefore need simply refer to it here. 



Liebig states that the flesh of young animals contains more 

 gelatin than that of old ones ; in 1000 parts of beef there are 6 

 parts of gelatin, while in veal there are 50 parts. It is a matter 

 of common belief that veal is less digestible than beef. This 

 is, perhaps, true to some extent, but not to such an extent as is 

 generally thought. Veal is more tender than some other meats, and 

 is therefore not usually well masticated, and hence not sufficiently 

 prepared for the action of the digestive juices. This renders its 

 digestion difficult and leads to the inference that its digestibility is 

 low. When very young, veal has a gelatinous consistency and is 

 regarded as being unfit for food. 



The cooking of meat has the effect of making it more digesti- 

 ble by changing its collagen into gelatin, and also more palatable. 

 Besides this, if the temperature is carried sufficiently high, any 

 animal parasites or pathogenic bacteria which the meat may con- 

 tain are killed. Whenever meat is eaten which is raw or in- 

 sufficiently cooked, there is always danger of contracting disease. 

 Meat which contains the Trichina spiralis may in this condition 

 produce trichinosis ; and that which contains cysticerci may cause 

 tapeworm in those who eat it. There is also great danger from 

 eating the meat of a tuberculous animal. This is denied by some, 

 but the evidence in its favor seems conclusive to the author. 



