CEREALS. 



153 



of the real value, or lack of value, of their wares, and, with a view 

 to meeting the criticisms which have been raised, they have added 

 greater or less quantities of powdered meat fibers. Even if it is 

 granted that the powdered fibers are digestible, and that the meat 

 extracts are composed wholly of them, which they are not, how 

 much nutriment would the patient receive from teaspoonful doses 

 given through the twenty-four hours ? Certainly not an appreciable 

 amount." 



If vegetables are added to meat extracts, making a vegetable 

 soup, the nutritive value is correspondingly increased. If bones 

 are used in the soup-making process, the amount of gelatin may 

 be increased to such an extent that when cold the soup gelatinizes 

 and becomes solid. 



Frying is a method of cooking which should never be applied 

 to meat such as beef, as it makes it indigestible by reason of its 

 toughness, and also by reason of the fat with which it becomes 

 soaked. If meats are fried by immersion in boiling fat, the 

 process is not so objectionable ; but the fat should not be allowed 

 to permeate the tissue, as it would do if the process was continued 

 too long. Frying is well adapted to the cooking of fish. 



CEREALS. 



The cereals are the farinaceous seeds used as food, such as 

 wheat, Indian corn or maize, rice, rye, oats, and barley. They 

 all contain proteids, fat, starch, and mineral salts, though the pro- 

 portion of these ingredients varies considerably in the different 

 cereals, as is shown by the following table (Halliburton) : 



The proteids in the flour of cereals are not identical. Some 

 writers regard those in wheat-flour as being a vegetable myosin 

 and a soluble proteose called phytalbumose. Gluten, which is 

 considered by some authorities as a proteid constituent of wheat, 

 is regarded by others as a mixture of gluten-fibrin, which is 

 formed from the vegetable myosin, and a proteose insoluble in 

 water, which is formed from the phytalbumose, and which gives 

 to the gluten its sticky consistency. According to this theory, the 

 gluten as such does not exist until water is added, when by the 

 action of an enzyme gluten is produced. This enzyme has, how- 

 ever, never been isolated, and until this theory is better sustained 

 by proofs we shall regard gluten as a constituent of wheat-flour. 



