348 
ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS ON EXTRACTUM CARNIS. 
flesh of bulls, cows, and oxen in varying proportions. After careful inquiry, it 
is satisfactory to be able to state that we have the assurance of both of the 
British firms whose names were mentioned in our paper that they have never 
used other than fine ox-beef in the preparation of their extract, and they give 
ample reasons in addition to those adduced by Baron Liebig for this preference. 
Our own experiments have in the same way been conducted exclusively on the 
flesh of oxen, and that always of the finest quality. Any one who has made the 
subject a study, and has once examined with the microscope extract of veal,* 
will have little difficulty in ascertaining whether a suspected article has been 
made from animals of mature age. 
In respect to adulterated samples of Extractum carnis, we can only repeat 
that we have never met with a specimen we had any reason to suspect. We do 
not doubt that the extract, like every other expensive article, is adulterated; 
but, in England at least, we are certain that the variation in quality depends 
far more upon the want of knowledge requisite for its proper preparation than 
from extraneous admixture. As to the formulse in the German pharmacopoeias, 
we should not have supposed that any maker would adhere strictly to their pro¬ 
cesses when working in a large scale, for in our hands they have yielded but a 
poor gelatinous product. If chloride of sodium had been added to a sample of 
extract in any large proportion, suspicion would commonly be excited by other 
circumstances, and the microscope would still be of service in its detection. 
It is to be regretted that Baron Liebig has introduced the commercial element, 
hitherto avoided as far as possible in the scientific treatment of the subject. We 
have no word to say against the Fray Bentos extract; the public will judge for 
themselves of external characters, such as flavour, odour, and strength, without 
the assistance of scientific men ; but onr belief is that those are not the qualities 
for which the South American product will be preferred. The Fray Bentos 
company will find ample sale for all the extract they can make, but it will be on 
the ground of price rather than any advantageous comparison in other respects 
with that prepared by some of our home manufacturers. If it be true, as we 
believe it is, that the chief difference in the article prepared from wild or semi¬ 
wild cattle from that of domesticated oxen is not so much difference of quality 
as of quantity—that the former yield an appreciably smaller amount of ex¬ 
tract,—the figures sent home by Mr. Seekamp are in excess of the proportion 
of extract we should have expected, judging from the experience of makers in 
this country. The climate, too, of Uruguay cannot be favourable to its manu¬ 
facture ; indeed, we have seldom seen a sample of their extract in which we have 
not thought we detected a trace of flavour attributable to it. Extractum car- 
nis, originally the product of the chemist in his laboratory, has now become a 
public boon, the importance of which it is impossible to over-estimate, and the 
name of Baron Liebig will ever be associated with it, as with so many other of 
our domestic comforts, but that it would be little short of a public calamity if by 
any means the supply were made dependent on a single firm or company, the 
experience of the last eighteen months must have satisfied every thinking 
person. 
Since this paper was written we have received from Antwerp, through the 
kindness of Baron Liebig, three samples of Extractum carnis for examination, 
with his notes on the chemical analysis of each. Should their investigation 
yield facts of sufficient interest, we may make them the subject of a future com¬ 
munication. 
* Although it is necessary that the flesh of mature animals alone should be used in the 
preparation of TSxtractum carnis, it is well to know that by proper treatment a very nice, 
and not too gelatinous extract may be made from veal. Variety is a desideratum’in tho 
dietary of invalids. 
