Jan. io, 1916 
Mature Beef and Immature Veal 
675 
With the exception of veal sample 7, all of the calves purchased were 
in good condition. Calf sample 7 was known to have “ white scours,” 
or diarrhea. It was plainly a sick animal and was purposely obtained. 
A very young kitten gained considerable weight while utilizing veal 
sample 7, boiled, as its sole source of nitrogen (see p. 707). The high 
content of extractive nitrogen in veal sample 7, experiment 23, while 
comparatively fresh, and its very rapid autolysis, as indicated by its 
appearance and still higher extractive nitrogen content in experiment 24 
a month later, are very striking. The four duplicates on veal and beef 
samples 7 were excellent. 
Hansoulle (1910, p. 122), in his report on very young veal as food, 
quotes Fonsny to the effect that about 60 per cent of the dry matter in 
meat from very young calves consists of extractives and gelatin, mate¬ 
rials which, while digestible, are not assimilable. Hansoulle also quotes 
the opinions of several directors of abattoirs in Belgium and France who 
regard very young veal as unfit for human food, but references to experi¬ 
mental work are not given. After veal sample 7 had been stored for 
over a month, the extractive nitrogen—i. e., nitrogen soluble in 
water near the boiling point—amounted to 44.9 per cent of the total 
nitrogen in the meat. But, obviously, this was exceptional, at least for 
the calves used in this work. It is possible that under the conditions 
observed by Hansoulle the veal deteriorated rapidly and justified his 
strong pronouncements on the unfitness of very young veal. The data 
in Table III have been obtained on calves 7 days old or less when 
killed, the meat of which had been stored at about 34 0 F. (i° C.) for 
varying lengths of time. The differences between the figures for beef 
and veal are much smaller than would be expected from the statements 
of various writers that the elimination of excretory nitrogen in very 
young calves is slow. Excluding the figure for veal sample 7 in experi¬ 
ment 24, the average extractive-nitrogen content in fresh beef is 0.491 
per cent, and for fresh veal, 0.530 per cent, with no great variations from 
the average. If the figure for veal sample 7 be included, the averages 
are 0.491 per cent for beef and 0.601 per cent for veal. The figures for 
beef are essentially the same as those obtained by other workers. 
Richardson and Scherubel (1908, p. 1527), in their studies on cold- 
storage beef, extracted 100-gm. portions of fresh beef with water until 
1 liter of extract was obtained from each. Determinations of nitrogen 
in the various forms were made on 50 c. c. portions of the extract. By 
adding together their figures for the amount of nitrogen present as 
ammonia (method 2), albumoses, and meat bases in their cold-water 
extract, a figure is obtained which corresponds to the figures for extractive 
nitrogen in Table III. The term “extractive nitrogen” is used rather 
loosely here, as it includes all nitrogenous substances in meat which are 
soluble in water near the boiling point—i. e., proteoses, peptones, amino 
acids, ammonia, purin bases, etc. The slight loss of ammonia due to the 
