October 1, 1370.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
263 
them, with the roots extending into fine cracks in the 
rock, and covered only with moss and a thin layer 
of earth consisting of accumulated dust. In this case 
a supply of carbon by humus was quite out of the 
question. 
There is no deficiency of similar facts which afford 
indications of the laws of nutrition, all that is re¬ 
quired is the inclination to see them. 
It appears to me almost inconceivable that the 
high value which a French family sets upon the pot 
an feu should be merely due to fancy or prejudice, 
nor can I believe that one of the most distinguished 
men in the medical department of the army should 
venture to say, “ Soup makes the soldier,”* if he was 
not fully convinced as to the high efficacy of meat 
broth mixed with the necessary vegetables, while we 
know this is a form of food which the French soldier 
frequently prefers even to meat. 
Is it possible to believe that the enthusiastic praise 
bestowed upon the extract of meat as a means of 
strengthening wounded soldiers by two of the most 
celebrated members of the French Academy, thirty- 
six years ago, before extract of meat was an article 
of commerce, could have rested only on imagination, 
or that the opinion expressed by these two men was 
not based upon extensive experience ?f 
Daily experience teaches us that a decoction of peas, 
fat and salt is inferior in nutritive power to pea-soup 
made with strong meat broth. Their effects are also 
different in every way, and the difference is decidedly 
in favour of the soup prepared with meat. Never¬ 
theless, it is only to the extractive constituents of 
the meat, and not the albuminous portion of it, that 
this difference is due. 
Since my investigation of the chemistry of flesh in 
1817, I have incessantly endeavoured to make the 
surplus meat-supplies of South America and the 
Colonies available in the form of extract for the po¬ 
pulation of Europe; and it is a most remarkable cir¬ 
cumstance that now, when my endeavours are at 
length being realized, a question is raised by some 
medical men as to the efficacy of meat-broth, and, 
for the first time, this is being disputed, as if the idea 
were a novel one that had not previously been heard 
of. However, there are always individuals who can¬ 
not pardon the success of others, who consider it 
quite proper that those who benefit mankind with 
useful inventions should be persecuted, and that the 
fruits of their labour should be disparaged. 
This is an old experience. “ My case,” says 
Gcithe, “ should verify the old proverb, that if one 
has rendered the world a service he will have learnt 
to take care he does not do so again.”| 
Medical men have never troubled themselves about 
the meat-lozenges (tablettes de bouillon), which have 
been an article of commerce for half a century, and 
though represented to be extract of meat, are really 
nothing but gelatine. 
It appears to me that progress in the doctrine of 
nutrition, in pathology and in therapeutics is, in the 
first place, dependent upon the application of the 
fundamental laws of mechanics, which obtain in the 
animal organism and throughout nature in reference 
to motion and work. 
* Dr. Baudens, “Une Mission Medicate dans la Crimee,” 
Rev . des Deux Mondes, vii. 1857. 
t Parmentier was General Inspector of Health during the 
Revolutionary War; Proust was through the whole Spanish 
war. 
Eckermann, “ Conversations with Gothe.” 
The greatest hindrance to the appreciation of, and 
insight into the actions of the animal machine, is the 
constant confusion of the physiological sense of power 
with actual power. 
One of the most distinguished medical investi¬ 
gators considers “ that the food consumed strengthens 
much sooner than the actual digestion takes place, 
and that by the absorption of a very small quantity of 
material into the blood a stimulus is produced suffi¬ 
cient to overcome or reduce the state of fatigue ; in 
this way may be explained the fact that a drink of 
fresh water, a glass of wine, beer, or spirits, appears 
for a time as powerful a means of restoration, or 
even more so, than a beef steak.” 
It is true that even the smell of a roast joint 
makes one forget fatigue ; but it seems going too far 
to make us believe that thirst and hunger are iden¬ 
tical conditions. A draught of cold, fresh water is 
doubtless in the case of thirst a stronger restorative 
than roast beef, while in the case of hunger roast 
beef is a stronger restorative than a glass of water. 
Spirits or wine stimulate but do not strengthen; a 
whip would do the same. It may happen that a 
man has to work immediately after taking his meal, 
but he does not do so willingly; the rule is that a 
labourer should rest after his meal-time for an hour, 
and it is only after several hours that he becomes 
again capable of intense exertion. 
(To be continued.) 
NOTE ON THE CONSTITUTION OF ALBUMEN. 
BY J. ALFRED WAN ILL YN. 
M. Bechamp has recently repeated his statement 
that urea is obtainable from albumen by means of 
permanganate of potash, and has published details 
which seem to leave little doubt on the subject. The 
fact that urea is itself oxidizable by permanganate of 
potash will go a long way towards explaining the 
failures experienced by other chemists in their at¬ 
tempts to get it from albumen. 
Some results obtained by Chapman, Smith and 
myself, in the course of investigations undertaken 
for the purpose of establishing the ammonia method 
of water-analysis, would seem to indicate that urea 
exists ready formed in albumen; or rather that al¬ 
bumen is, like creatine, a compound wherein urea 
and something else are joined together, with loss of 
the elements of water. 
When albumen is mixed with aqueous solution of 
caustic potash and then dried-up in the oil bath, it 
yields one-third of its nitrogen in the form of am¬ 
monia, the remaining two-thirds being obtainable as 
ammonia on boiling the dried-up mass with a solu¬ 
tion of permanganate of potash. But, if the pre¬ 
liminary evaporation to dryness with caustic potash 
be omitted, the action of strongly alkaline perman¬ 
ganate of potash converts only two-thirds of the total 
nitrogen of albumen into ammonia. 
Now, a caustic alkali converts urea into carbonic 
acid and ammonia; but permanganate of potash 
oxidizes it, so as to yield no ammonia, the nitrogen 
in this case making its appearance either in the state 
of gas or as nitric acid. 
So likewise in the case of creatine, one-third of its 
nitrogen is evolved as ammonia when permanganate 
of potash is employed, and in creatine one-tliird of 
the nitrogen is present in a form other than urea, 
while two-thirds of it exists as urea. 
It would, therefore, appear that one-third of the 
