Liebig’s extract of meat. 
287 
nient, and thus rendering the whole nutritive portion available for human food. 
No doubt a meal from this, containing so much larger a proportion of important 
inorganic, and also the soluble nitrogenized constituents, would be preferable to 
fine flour as an article of diet; but from the uncertainty of manufacturing it by 
the ordinary baker, it is still found to be more advantageous, in a commercial 
point of view, to retain, as hitherto, only the fine flour, and give that contain¬ 
ing the most digestible form of gluten, with the phosphates, as food to the 
lower animals. By non-fermented processes this meal can be utilized and 
made into light wholesome bread. 
During the transformation of wheat-grain from the translucent to the opaque 
condition, nitrogenized matter is diminished in amount, and that which remains 
has evidently undergone a change, and in its central portion assumed in some 
degree the property possessed by that immediately beneath the bran ; and were 
the old and lengthy process for lightening dough the only one known or likely 
to be practicable, it would be useless to raise the question; but, with the new 
thoughts and appliances that have of late been brought to bear upon bread- 
making, and by which many of the difficulties have been overcome, it seems 
well worth consideration and practical inquiry, whether the wheat chosen, with 
good reason, by the miller for its mechanical properties, is of so much value as 
an article of nourishment, or flesh-former, as that naturally ripened, which, if 
contciining a smaller proportion of nitrogenized constituents, yet possesses them 
in a more soluble, and, one would imagine, more readily assimilable form. 
It would be highly interesting to learn whether, during the change in the 
wheat, the loss of nitrogenized matter is equally distributed through the grain, 
or whether it occurs principally in either the external or internal portion ; also 
the relative proportion of soluble and insoluble gluten in the two; but the sub¬ 
ject is one of so much importance, and opens up so wide a field, that it is to be 
hoped that wheat-grain is yet a matter of further investigation with Professor 
Church. 
LIEBIG’S EXTRACT OF MEAT. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
Sir,—In the last number of your Journal (October, p. 196), I find an ex¬ 
cellent contribution from Messrs. Deane and Brady on “ The Results of the 
Micro-Chemical Examination of Extract of Flesh.” 
I beg you will allow me to make a few remarks which may form a proper 
basis of judgment of extract of meat, and particularly of South American, 
respecting its colour, taste, and consistencj''. 
You are probably aware of my having accepted the office of Director of 
the Scientific Department of Liebig’s Extract of Meat Company, Limited, 
and on conditions calculated to offer to the public a complete guarantee of 
the genuineness and purity of the extract manufactured by that Company. 
One of my former assistants, Mr. Seekamp, is the manager of the chemical 
branch of the manufactory at Fray Bentos; another of my assistants. Dr. 
Ch. Finck, is acting at the general depot of the Company. One manufactures 
the extract according to my special directions, the other receives it at Antwerp, 
and is bound to take a sample of each package, and to forward it to my La¬ 
boratory at Munich for analysis. The packages are tin canisters of 36 to*^5 
lbs. each; the extract is sold only after being approved by myself. You will 
perceive thereby, that I not only control the manufacture, according to my 
process, of the extract at Fray Bentos, but also its quality when sold by 
“Liebig’s Extract of Meat Company, Limited,” and I may safely assert, 
therefore, that the Fray Bentos extract does not contain any gelatine, or any¬ 
thing that can be considered as such. 
