62 
ON THE EXTRACT OF MEAT 
N article of food has lately been introduced which has 
found its way into every grocer’s and chemist’s shop 
in the country, and for which there is in all parts of the 
world a vast demand. This substance is variously called 
the Extract of Meat, the Juice of Flesh, Liebig’s Ex- 
tract, and in Latin, Zxtractum Carnis Liebigit. The 
name of Baron Liebig, the great chemist, is more espe- 
cially connected with this compound, as he has undoubt- 
edly the merit of having first called attention to it asa 
valuable article of diet. In his “Familiar Letters on 
Chemistry,” he devotes a letter to vegetable and animal 
food, and gives an account of their various chemical com- 
ponents. He shows with regard to all animal flesh, that 
besides fibrine, albumen, gelatine, and fat, it contains 
certain other constituents which may be separated from 
these by asimple process of infusion, straining, and evapo- 
ration. The substance thus obtained is the extract of 
flesh. This compound was known to chemists previous 
to the researches of Liebig, and he especially mentions 
those sagacious and experienced physicians, Parmentier 
and Proust, who had long ago endeavoured to introduce 
a general use of the extract of meat. They, however, re- 
garded it as a remedy for disease and exhaustion, and 
recommended it as a resource for the diseased and 
wounded soldier on the field of battle or in camp. “In the 
supplies of a body of troops,” says Parmentier, “extract 
of meat would to the severely wounded soldier be a means 
of invigoration, which with a little wine would instantly 
restore his powers, exhausted by great loss of blood, and 
enable him to bear being transported to the nearest field 
hospital.” “We cannot,” says Proust, “imagine a more 
fortunate application. What more invigorating remedy, 
what more powerfully acting panacea than a genuine 
extract of meat dissolved in a glass of noble wine? 
Ought we then to have nothing in our field hospitals 
for the unfortunate soldier whose fate condemns him to 
suffer for our benefit the horrors of a long death-struggle 
amidst snow and the mud of swamps?” That which 
these sagacious physicians recommended for dying sol- 
diers is now a common article of daily consumption in the 
households of Europe. That which was amply demon- 
strated to be of use to the dying soldier, was found no less 
adapted to restore the vital powers of the poor in our 
hospitals, and that which proved of benefit to the ex- 
hausted nervous powers of the poor was soon found to be 
of value to the exhausted nervous powers of the rich. The 
doctor, from prescribing it to the poor in hospitals, learned 
to prescribe it to his patients among the rich. The 
result of the action of this substance on exhausted nervous 
systems and debilitated frames is no delusion, it is no in- 
fluence of imagination, no simple belief in doses without 
power, but a real experience which is accumulating from 
day to day, and making demands on the manufacturers 
of this all-potent juice, which their utmost industry cannot 
meet. 
Let us now inquire how this is. To the unlearned 
there is a ready reply: the extract of flesh is all the nutri- 
tive power of flesh concentrated, and if one pound of juice 
is got from thirty pounds of flesh it must be thirty times as 
nutritious. But it is not so, and it will be surprising to 
these who believe in this doctrine to hear that the extract 
NATURE 
[May 26, 1870 
of meat contains little or nothing of what may be said to 
be nutritious at all. The substances which go to form 
nourishment for the body, which are contained in meat, 
are fibrine, albumen, and fat, but these are not present in 
the extract of meat. - 
One hundred parts of beef contain the following con- 
stituents :— 
1. Fibrine 4 
2. Albumen 4 
3. Gelatine ; 5 ; : 7 
4. Fat : ; 3 3 ; - 3a ‘ 
5. Mineral matters 3 : : 5 
6. Water . 5 ; 5 ; 5 . ee 
100 . 
Let us contrast with this the composition of a hundred ~ 
parts of Liebig’s Extract of Meat :— 
1. Creatine, Creatinine, Inosic Acid, Osma- 
zome, &c. . A ? . ; 51 
2. Gelatine ; : ° : 2 " 8 
3. Albumen : Terie : : . 3 
4. Mineral matters . 4 5 ; ; 21 
5. Water . 5 : . - . 5 17 
100 
The difference will be seen at a glance. The water has 
diminished by half, the albumen is less, and there is four 
times the quantity of mineral matter, and a set of bodies 
is introduced which occupy half the bulk of the com- 
pound, which are not noticed in the composition of beef 
at all. If, then, the Extract of Meat differs from beef 
and from all other nutritious articles of diet, it is not 
in containing nutritious matters, but in containing the 
chemical compounds just mentioned in large quantities, 
and mineral matters. It is to these, then, we must look 
for the explanation of the marvellous powers which the 
extract of flesh exerts on the human system. 
What,then, are the creatine, and its associates creatinine, 
inosric acid, &c? All we know of creatine is that it is 
acrystallisable body, and that it has an alkaline action, 
and is capable of combining with acids to form salts. In 
this respect it is like quinine, morphine, strychnine, and 
other substances from the vegetable kingdom capable of 
exerting a great influence on the nervous system. It 
seems to stand between these latter bodies and theine, 
which is contained in tea and coffee, and which has not 
the power of combining with acids. Whatever may be its 
chemical character, we know little of its action on the 
human body. It is easily resolvable into urea, and seems 
to be one of those compounds which are the result of the 
decomposition of albumen-and fibrine into nerves and 
muscles before these are ultimately removed from the body. 
Whatever may be the true chemical or physiological 
relations of creatine, we cannot but regard the pre- 
sence of this substance in the extract of flesh as playing 
an important part in the action of the latter on the human 
system. 
When creatine is boiled with mineral acids another 
product results, which differs from creatine, and is called 
creatinine. ‘This again may be decomposed, and forms 
sarkosine. The special action of these substances on the 
animal system is unknown, but we know they are con- 
