136 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



A third ingredient which is never wanting in fresh meat is a positive 

 organic base of constitution analogous to that of chinin, or perhaps 

 more nearly to that of codein, which is found in opium. There are 

 also in meat two nitrogenous acids ;— altogether, a variety of bodies 

 whose existence in the living body could have been scarcely suspected. 

 I have described these bodies and their chemical relations in a paper 

 which is now in press, and will detail only a few results that may be 

 practically applied. 



The presence of two fluids throughout the body of opposite chemical 

 nature, one acid, (the flesh-fluid,) the other alkaline, (the blood and 

 lymph), separated from each other by membranes permeable to both, 

 must satisfy any one that in this arrangement there is a source of elec- 

 tricity or of an electric current. I will not herewith say, that, by con- 

 sequence, electrical effects must be recognizable in the body, for we 

 know that these as such (electrical) disappear when through any result 

 of motion, chemical action (decomposition or composition) is produ- 

 ced, and I regard the latter as dependent upon an electrical stream. 



Moreover, the occurrence in flesh of creatine,— of a substance whose 

 properties are allied to those of the active ingredient of coffee (caffeine), 

 as also of another which has all the properties of an organic base, 

 makes the action of medicines appear no longer so dark and mysteri- 

 ous. Ihe most efficient of all medicines from the vegetable kingdom 



are organic bases. 



If you leach finely chopped meat with cold water, you procure a red 

 flu,d and a white residue. The latter is the actual muscular fibre, and 

 the so ut.on contains, beside the above named bodies, a considerable 

 quantity ot albumen that may be separated as coagulum by heating the 



fluid tO hm inrr ° J D 



I have found that the residue (the muscular fibre) either for itself or 

 boiled 1 with water is tasteless, and that the water in which the fibre has 

 been boiled derives no taste. The fibre, by boiling, becomes hard and 

 altogether unpalatable. 



All the ingredients having odor or taste, may of course, be abstract- 

 ed, with cold water. They are contained in the flesh-fluid of slaugh- 



tered animate 



You will not wonder, my most Eespected Sir, if I now turn to re- 

 ceipts for the kitchen. 



It follows from the above, that one can make for himself, in a few 

 minutes, the best and strongest broth (Fleisch-bruhe, Bouillon de 

 viande) : if e . g. a pound of finely chopped beef (mince) with a pound 

 (pint; of cold water, be carefully mixed and then slowly heated to 

 boiling, and the fluid separated from the solid parts by pressing through 

 clean cloth. This broth, with the usual condiments-Voiled onions, 

 vegetables, salt, etc.) added, will furnish a dish beyond the criticism of 



the most fastidious gourmand. 



above n. t , the ° rgan,C baSe ' mcn »oned in the paragraph which follows 



the L L T 1~ 7' .W" A" £ letter t0 Ga r &w5 and published « 

 WtaS Rp £ 1S S- 6 ?^' *- 3 ^ contains the elements of the 



add-c Voft' a P* ° f lh ? acUon of drv ammonia gas upon lactic 



spirit, aVabo^v elated. ™ ** ** * W,itS ° f G1 - VC0C ° 11 and W °° 



C a H 7 N0 4 =C 4 rI 4 N0 3 -fC 2 H 3 0. 



