New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-05-31
BARON LIEBIG.
AN INTERESTING CONVERSATION WITH
THE GREAT CHEMIST.

AMgRCAHi APPI.fs-PRoF. LLEDIG's HORROR OF
sPEECN-MAKING.
TO the Eaftor Of The Tribune
SIR: The recent death of Prof. Liebg reminds me
of a conversation which had with him only about
three months since at Munich which can hardly fail
to interest the readers OF The TRIBUNE. Some the
previous Prof Won Gotta, the eminent geologist,
with whom Ihad been airing my sentiments about
beer as a beverage pretty freely, had handed me
copy of the Fidbraa dnzeiger, in which Prof. Leoig
was reported TO have expressed the opinion tnat
beer was not only a. healthful but necessary TONIC
and that there was as yet no substitute ior ip ~
least within reach Of the poorer classes 10 'I7o
spoke of the great deterioration IN the quaiiy VI
the Bavaran and Of the superiority OF the American
beer, whie he believed would soon be the hnest III
the world. Jprrseryed this paper, and during my
visit called the Barons attention to ~ asking MN
at the same time when aud where and under "ii@'
title he had published his views on this subject NC
replied after running his eye over the article thae
he had not written anything upon the SUBJECT po
chat M the course of conversation he had once neiu
with CORRESPONDENT Of THE NEw-YoRK TRIBUNE
be had uttered substantially those opinions. ven
tured To suggest in "a indirect manner az possible
some of the more familiar objections to narcotics
and the Inconvenience which always experienced
from using them even in the form Oh
beer. He said as for that. the narcotic element
in glass of beer or two was too inconsiderabie 10
deserve notice And then he went on to say thaI
from time TO time the system requires an Alternative
of some SORT aud beer appears to answer this pur-
pose as well as anything yet devised. A very Gu
nous and interesting illustration OF this he con-
tnued had recently occurred within MS own eN-
perience. Some 20 years ago the Baron had sug-
ested the practcability of feeding Europe with the
wild cattle OF South America by extracting such Oh
tbei, qualities as were soluble in warm water. NO
practicable advantage was taken Of this suggestion
however ill 1864, when German OF the name Oh
Gebert came to him for instruction IN the process
by wbicn the Baron promised To utilize the waste
oninnl food Of America, and with them be betook
himself to Fray Bentos, in the Province OF Uruguay
and established saughter-house and factory
of the now wcll-known Liebig's Fleisch Extract"
and which was in full operation in 1885, The ra-
pidity with which the business developed may be
inferred from the fact that during the last year,
1872 ~ 600 head of cattle were used in the prepara
ton of This extract of which nearly, If not quite,
COO 900 pounds comes annually TO Europe. But III
getting this amount of extract the Baron found there
was az enormous waste Of nutritive material IL
for example a piece Of meat is dried at the tenn
pcrature of no. il parts with "A per cent OF water
while only % per cent of dry substance remains to
represent its nutrve properties; and 100 weight OF
meat in hot water gives % Clio of insoube material
and only 40 of material soluble in water and avail
able for the Baron's purposes.
The nsouble part, constituting so much the larger
portion was usually burned up, or thrown into the
river A little was occasionally used for manure.
The Baron was consulted about utilizing this refuse
He ordered a hundred weight sent to Mu-
Mich. had it dried, ground into flour, and fed to
| pigs. 1t was of gray color with FAINT
smell of Parmesan cheese, and proved. upon analy-
sic. TO Weld far more fat and meat-producng prop
critics than the vegetable and ground food usually
fed IN animals produced three times more albumen
than the grains and above two and half times more
| than the oilcake, with an equal amount OF fat.
The hogs ate il with avidity. and so did dogs and
| other animals, and in two months some of them
! doubled their weight. As as these facts were
| demonstrated they lost time in increasing their
stock of hogs and in providing corresponding sup
plies of the refuse from Fray-Benitos; but, after
about a month"; it was discovered that the pigs lost
| their appetite and declined diet upon which they
| had 80 marvelousy thriven IL was found that
this food lacked certain salts which abound IN ten
times larger proportion in dried-out lean beef. and
that dog died very soon if fed on it exclusively.
Nov what do you think did" said the Baron
to restore my pigs their appetites ~ gave 1t up
of course. and be went on: L mixed powdered
stone coal with their food. 1t restored their appe-
| tlte at once and now we arc feeding enormous
| quantity Of hogs here entirely upon this refuse
meat and coal powder, OF, should say, meat and
/ coal flour"
The Baron did not explain the process of reason
ing which led him. in the face and eyes Of Scripture
| TO give his pigs stone when they asked for bread,
but he admitted to me- what is suppose sufficiently
obvious to every one, that the action OF the coal
was purslJ dynamica It ia curious, by the way. to
see how logical nature H. in spite of all the sophis
! tries Of civilization. Goals are only vegetables
/ cooked over a very slow fire, and how natural
therefore, for the pigs to some vegetable food
! with their meat.
! was of course very much interested in this
! abatement more so than convinced Of its bearing
upon the proposition it was designed to illustrate
did not see how il followed from the pigs desiring
| coal to aid them in digesdng their meat pudding
that humans required beer to digest theirs, nor
why if the cases parallel, he did not prescribe
beer TO the pigs or coal to the humans. As the old
lady said Of the dictionary she had been reading,
did NOT see the connection However did not pre-
sumo to deblte the question with the Baron, who
fancied was not anxious to be held responsible for
his thesis but could not resist the temptation to
ask him if he drank much beer himself. lie promptly
replied, VERY rarely l concluded to leave the
! question there, and when | should learn that the
Baron bad taken TO drinking Deer OF eauhg GOAL IL
would be tine enough for me to revise my views of
both rs articles of diet for creatures in our stage of
| evolution.
| Twas accompanied by two of my children, and
| while talking he went TO a closet and brought TO us
each superb apple, asking me as he handed mine to
me if l recognized IT, Seeing that did not quite
understand the import of MS question, ho said
"Ihose are American apples. You have the best
apples in the world in America; there Is no doubt
about it," depressed my regret that country