January 18, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
5G3 
mically and in tlieir physiological effect identical 
things. 
If to meat exhausted in this way, the extracted 
parts are again added in the shape of beef-tea or ex¬ 
tract of meat, it is eagerly eaten by dogs who despise 
it without such addition; in fact, all the component 
parts of meat which are contained in roast meat 
are thereby reunited. 
Now, as vegetable albuminates are identical with 
albuminates contained in the flesh of animals, it will 
be easily perceived that if we add to our vegetable 
food, rich in vegetable albuminates —for instance 
to bread, peas, beans, or even potatoes and rice,— 
the soluble parts of meat such as are combined 
in extract of meat, we thereby impart to it the pe¬ 
culiar nutritive value which distinguishes meat in 
our estimation from other food. 
Dr. Gerhard Rolilfs, well known by his travels in 
Morocco, says, in reference to the effect of extract 
of meat in a letter addressed to me :—“ As regards 
extract of meat it has proved, particularly to us 
travellers in Africa, one of the greatest blessings. 
On my travels through the great desert from Tri- 
polis to the Iscliad Lake, it was my daily food. 
Being without any meat I took it in the morning 
spread upon biscuits, and this was not only very pa¬ 
latable but it proved a complete substitute for meat 
diet. In the evening I made beef-tea, adding a 
good portion to rice, lentils, or kuskuss, or whatever 
I happened to possess in the shape of vegetables. 
I have become so accustomed to the extract of meat 
that I am still obliged to keep it constantly in my 
house.” 
It will be well understood, therefore, that by the 
addition of extract of meat to our food, we neither 
economize carbon for the maintenance of the tem¬ 
perature nor nitrogen for the sustenance of the 
organs of our body, and that therefore it cannot be 
called “ food in the ordinary sense,” but we thereby 
increase the working capabilities of the body and its 
capacity to resist exterior injurious disturbances, 
i.e., to maintain health under unfavourable cir¬ 
cumstances. Thus an addition of extract of meat 
to vegetable food forms the only means to make up 
for a want of meat. 
All this taken together gives to these substances, 
to which also belong tea and coffee, a very, high 
value in the alimentation of our populations, the 
last and true object of which is the production of 
working power for mental and bodily work; and it 
becomes perfectly intelligible why the great historian 
Macaulay, in his celebrated work, very properly 
devoted an entire chapter to the introduction of 
coffee into England as being to some extent con¬ 
nected with modern life. 
For our object it is tolerably indifferent with what 
name the effect of the so-called “ Nervous stimu¬ 
lants ” is designated. 
A few years since agriculturists still considered 
gypsum, lime, and bone meal to be stimulants for 
the growth of plants; now we know perfectly well 
that they are nutritive substances for plants. In 
modern life men on the whole perform more muscu¬ 
lar and brain work than formerly; still the average 
duration of life of individuals has not decreased but 
increased, and nobody who takes a comprehensive 
survey of life can doubt that coffee and tea contri¬ 
bute largely to this end, and that extract of meat 
properly used is a really good and most useful 
tiling. 
In conclusion, it may be mentioned that I have 
given my ideas on this subject in two treatises, both 
of which appeared in English scientific journals ; the 
one “ On the Nutritive Value of Different Sorts of 
Food,” in the Lancet (January, February, and March, 
1869), the other in the London Pharmaceutical 
Journal (“The Source of Muscular Power”—Sep¬ 
tember and October, 1870), and I think that no En¬ 
glish physician wishing to criticize my opinions 
should be allowed to ignore these two treatises of 
mine. 
One word more about Dr. Edward Smith. It is 
a pity that he thinks himself competent to give his 
opinion on questions of which he cannot be said to 
have a perfect knowledge. This becomes evident as 
soon as he touches on chemical subjects. For in¬ 
stance, in a letter to the Standard (October 24th, 
1872) Dr. Edward Smith declares that beef-tea made 
of ffesli soup meat would certainly contain albumen, 
etc., and he charges me with “hardihood ” for com¬ 
paring extract of meat with such beef-tea. Dr. E. 
Smith apparently forgets that the soluble albumen 
of meat is coagulated by boiling it with water, ex¬ 
actly in the same way as the albumen of eggs, and 
that, therefore, beef-tea cannot contain albumen any 
more than extract of meat. Both extract of meat 
and beef-tea are prepared from the same material 
exactly in the same manner, and the difference of 
the former from beef-tea consists simply in extract 
of meat being beef-tea condensed to the consistency 
of honey. 
ORIENTAL ACONITE. 
BY M. C. COOKE, M.A. 
Dr. Hooker has expressed his opinion (‘ Flora 
Indiea’) that the “ Bisli” of the Himalayas is the 
produce of four species of Aconitnm respectively. 
Aconitum luridum, Hook, and Thom., found in 
Alpine East Himalaya at an elevation of 14,000 
feet. 
Aconitum palmatum, Don., inhabiting the Tem¬ 
perate Himalaya from Sikkim to Garwlial, at an al¬ 
titude from 8000 to 10,000 feet. 
Aconitum ferox, Wall., in the Temperate sub- 
Alpine Himalaya, from Sikkim to Garwlial, at an 
elevation of from 10,000 to 14,000 feet. 
Aconitum Napellus, Linn., in Temperate Alpine 
Himalaya, from 10,000 feet to the highest limit of 
vegetation in the North Western Provinces. 
Such being the case, it would be satisfactory if the 
varieties of “Bish” could be traced to the plants 
producing them ; but on this point the same author 
adds We have not detected any characters by 
which the dried roots of these species can be specifi¬ 
cally recognized, nor do we believe that any such 
exist.” It is very clear that some samples of “ Bish ” 
are very distinct in appearance and texture from 
others. The question arises whether tins is deter¬ 
mined by the mode or period of collection, method of 
drying, or distinctive features of the species or variety 
of plant. The latter seems to be most probable. 
There is a confusion of species most probably, and 
of native names, in the drug as found in the Ba¬ 
zaars. Moodeen Sheriff, in the Supplement to the 
Pharmacopoeia of India gives all the native names 
under the head of Aconitum ferox , of which the 
Arabic is Bish, and the Persian Bishnag , whilst in 
