EXTRACT OF MEAT. 
801 
Though soup may be made from bones only^ containing as 
they do a certain amount of gelatine,, it is very different from 
that produced by the boiling of meat. The presiding physician 
of the Hospital of St. Louis at Paris adopted the use of bones^ 
which^ when broken and allowed to simmer for a long time^ 
yielded a bouillon of seemingly sufficient good quality. The 
patients^ however^ suffered from this fare ; they not only soon 
grew tired of and disliked ip but the glue it contained deranged 
their digestion. They neither gained strength nor flesh ; 
bup on the contrary^ grew emaciated. Hence it would seem 
that in fresh meat are virtues which no other substance can 
supply. 
When this essence of beef which is here described is kept 
for a time^ small crystals of creatine form in the syrup -like 
fluid. They are not perceptible to the eye, but on the tongue 
their presence is detected, just as in tasting a liquid saccharine 
matter the crystals of sugar which it contains are felt on the 
lips. By a chemical process these may be obtained apart; 
they are of snowy whiteness and brilliancy, and are in appear- 
ance not unlike Epsom salts. 
Since the above was written, several cases of essence of meat have been 
received from Monte Video. A cup of beef-tea made with half a spoonful 
of the extract is quite delicious. It has a peculiarly fine, delicate flavour. 
With the consignment came also some extract of the flesh of sheep, and this 
is so excellent that there are some who even think it preferable to that made 
of beef. Herr Giebert has his apparatus in full working order, and will be 
able to furnish 5,000 lb. of essence per month. 
Within the last few weeks a confirmation of what is here said with regard 
to the so-called consomme, has been furnished by the preparation of a French 
speculator. In tin cases bearing the word “ Speciality,” as well as “ Approuve 
par la Societe Imperiale de France,” a liquid called “ Osmazone glace ” is 
offered for sale, and purporting to afford 40 cups of bouillon per kilogramme. 
The said fluid is so disgusting that it is hardly possible to imagine that any 
one could be prevailed on to put a spoonful of it in his mouth. The smell is 
like that of a stale glue-pot, when the animal matter it contains has grown 
fetid. Why the manufacturer should sell it in a liquid state, packed in 
soldered canisters, is quite unintelligible ; for by evaporation it is easy to 
reduce it to a mass in no wise distinguishable from joiner’s glue. 
As it comes from afar — from Kio Grande, where it is probably made from 
the feet and sinews of the slaughtered animals — people fancy it must be 
valuable. 
Genuine extract of meat is permeated with crystals of creatine, one of the 
essential components of the juice of meat ; and if treated with cold water 
these crystals are left behind mixed with phosphate of magnesia, and then, 
too, the half of the weight of the dry extract of meat is soluble in alcohol, 
and the residue left is very different from gelatine or glue. From “ Osmazone 
glace ” treated with alcohol, nearly 90 per cent, remained unsolved, and its 
residue was not distinguishable from common glue. It does not seem that 
any meat was used in the preparation of this nauseous stuff. 
