June 1, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
967 
and the filtrate evaporated in vacuo to the consist¬ 
ence of honey. M. Poggiale reports that with 25 
grams of this extract and one litre of boiling-water 
he obtained a savory broth having the flavour of 
that prepared directly from meat. This extract, 
however, is not much met with in commerce. 
The Australian extract of meat is dismissed rather 
curtly, and an inferior sample appears to have been 
examined. 
The next preparation referred to is that which is 
made in accordance with the directions ofM. Liebig, 
by taking meat free from fat and bone, chopped 
small and steeped in its own weight of water, and 
raising it slowly to the boiling-point, the coagulated 
albumen being skimmed off. It is then pressed, 
and the liquid evaporated over an open fire to one- 
sixth of its original volume, and afterwards brought, 
in vacuo and at a rather higher temperature, to the 
consistence of an extract. M. Ritter says that this 
extract contains a small quantity of albuminose. 
He found— 
Water.12*0 
Organic matter.67’4 
Inorganic matter.14 - 6 
The organic matter consists of crystallizable prin¬ 
ciples not yet isolated and studied. 
M. Hepp, principal pliarmacien to the Strasburg 
hospitals, prepares an extract of meat by a modifi¬ 
cation of Liebig’s process. The evaporation is not 
carried so far, and a fine jelly is produced which is 
flavoured with aromatic herbs. Upon analysis M. 
Ritter found— 
Water.8-5-27 
Organic matter.11-25 
Inorganic matter.3 - 48 
This preparation, which contains 2’20 per cent, of 
albumenoicl matter, and is taken without the least re¬ 
pugnance, the author considers to be superior to any of 
the preceding; but it is under the disadvantage of be¬ 
coming quickly covered with mould, arising from 
the fermentation of the vegetable matter present. 
In concluding this part of his subject, Dr. 
Muller refers to a statement by Baron Liebig, that 
one pound of his extract, with a sufficient quantity 
of potatoes and bread, would make an excellent 
broth for 128 soldiers. This the author disputes, 
saying that, though it would make a broth, the 
nourishment would not be so great as though 
the soldiers had the thirty-two pounds of meat 
that the pound of extract would represent. If ex¬ 
tract of meat has any alimentation, he considers it to 
be due to the salts which constitute one-fifth of its 
weight. Of 100 parts of these salts, Baron Liebig 
says that 81 are soluble in water, and 19 insoluble, 
of which 5'77 is phosphate of lime, and 13'2-3 phos¬ 
phate of magnesia. The extract may be beneficial 
at the termination of a long illness, since the saline 
matters principally necessary in the formation of the 
gastric juice are so furnished to the exhausted system. 
But as these are principally salts of potash, the extract 
will produce in the system the characteristic effects 
of those salts : in small quantity it is stimulant; but 
strong doses should be avoided, for then the salts of 
potash impede liematosis. M. Hepp found that the 
extract previously described as prepared by him was 
insufficient to support life in dogs,—one dying at the 
end of fifteen days, and one at twenty, and similar 
results were obtained by the author. But M. Kem- 
merich* has met with results that seem to point to 
* ‘ Wiener medizinische Wochensclirift, 1869. 
direct toxic effects from the use of extract of meat 
alone. Two dogs were supplied by him, one with 
water only, the other with water containing five 
grams of extract, daily. At the end of ten days the 
latter, which had been the stronger dog of the two* 
could not walk, and on the twelfth day it died, after 
which time the former was restored to its normal 
food and recovered. During this time two other 
dogs were kept in good health by being fed upon the 
meat residue from which the extract had been pre¬ 
pared, seasoned with common salt. On another oc¬ 
casion death followed the injection into the stomach of 
a rabbit weighing one kilogram of the extract ob¬ 
tained from its own weight of meat. Dr. Muller does 
not, however, think that this toxic action is due to> 
the organic crystalline principles contained in the 
extract, since a considerable quantity of creatinine has 
been injected into the blood of rabbits without any in¬ 
jurious effect; but that it is due to the mineral crys- 
tallizable principles—principally salts of potash,— 
M. Kemmerich having shown that the ash only will 
cause death. 
The third and concluding part of the memoir deals 
with the physiological action of the salts of potash. 
It records an elaborate series of experiments as to 
the relative action of the alkaline salts upon the 
blood globule. It was found that the salts of soda 
retarded the decomposition of the blood globule 
longer than those of potash and ammonia, and that 
they also retained a larger proportion of oxygen. 
In the presence of potash salts, it was found that 
the globule absorbed less oxygen, and the serum 
less carbonic acid. The author is, therefore, of 
opinion that too large a quantity of extract of meat, 
administered at the close of a long illness, when the 
system is exhausted by a long abstinence, would be 
injurious in proportion, as the organism has lost its 
chloride of sodium, and that the medical man should 
be aware that to give these extracts alone is but to 
prolong the feebleness of his patient. 
VESICATING INSECTS. 
BY M. C. COOKE, M.A. 
[Concluded from page 947.) 
XII. Adulterants. 
This series of papers would scarcely be complete- 
without an enumeration of those insects which from, 
time to time have been found mixed up chiefly with 
the commercial Cantharides, as an adulteration, not 
possessing in themselves any vesicating properties. 
In all these cases it may fairly be presumed that the 
mixture was compounded with a fraudulent inten¬ 
tion. 
The largest and most attractive of these insects is 
the Green Musk Beetle, Afomia moschata , L., the 
Callichroma muscata of Moquin-Tandon, and Cedli¬ 
cit rome musque of Guibourt,figured in Curtis’s ‘ British 
Entomology,’ plate 738. It is one of the Longicorne, s‘„ 
from 1 inch to upwards of 14 inches in length. 
The following is its technical description : Shining 
green, coppery, or bluish; glabrous; head slightly 
punctured ; thorax irregularly tuberculated ; elytra 
thickly roughened, especially at the base ; with three 
faint varied hairs ; legs and antennae bluish. It is. 
found on willows, being a common European species* 
and not uncommon in Britain. When employed as 
an adulterant, of course the long horns are broken 
off, and, indeed the elytra are the cliief paits used* 
