The St. Johns herald., 1895-10-17
sTARyINe ON cEer TEA.
Likely to Digturb Mary cId-TIms Cher
 Isned DeInsioas.

Likely to Digturb sEary Cid-TIms Cher
 lsned Delusious.
 It is generally believed that beef tea and animal broths of all kinds are nourishi1g. The most recent medical authorities assure us that this is mis- take. In order to combat what it calls ''The Beef-Tea Delusion," Modern Med icine publishes an article, consisting largely of quotations from high mod ern authority. We reproduce several paragraphs below:
 ''rhe late Dr. Austin Flint remarked on one occasion that thousands of pa- being fed on animal broths, beef tea, etc. No error could be greater than the notion very commonly held by the laity, and still quite too largely enter tained by the members of the medical profession, that beef extracts, beef tea, bouillon, animal broths, etc, are peeuI- iarly nourishing in character. We can adduce no better evidence to the con trary than is afforded by the following paragraphs from 'Bunge's Physiological and Pathological Chemistry one of the latest and most reliable authorities:
 "'We must guard against supposing that meat bouillon possesses a strength ening and nourishing influence. In re- gard to this, the most delusive notions are entertained not only by the general public, but also by medical men.
 Until quite recently the opinion was held that bouillon contained the most nutritive part Of meat. There was a confused idea that minute quan- tity of material-a plateful of bouillon can be made from a ateaspoonful of meat extract-could yield an effectual source of nourishment, that the extractives of meat were synonymous with concen- tratcd food.
 Let US inquire what substances could render bouillon nutritious. The only article of food which meat yields to boiling water is gelatine It is well known that albuInen is coagulated in boiling, the giycogen of meat is rapidly converted into sugar, and this again into tactic acid. The quantity of gela- tine is, moreover, very small; for waterY solution which contains only one per cent. of gelatine coagulates on cooling. Such coagulation may occur in very strong soups and gravies, but never in bouillon. Bouillon, therefore, contains much less than one per cent. of gelatine. In preparing extract of meat, the quantity of gelatine is re- duced as much as possible, because it is. in high degree liable to putrefactive changes, and therefore likely to inter- fere with the preservation of the prep aration. The other constituents of bouillon are decomposition prod ucts of foodstu1fs-products of the oSidations and decolnpositions which take place in the animal organism. They cannot be regarded as nutri- tious, because they are no longer capa- ble of yielding any l1inetic energy, or at most such small amount that it is of no importance whatever.
 Nevertheless, until the most re- cent times, creatin and creatinin, which are among the chief constituents of meat extract, were regarded as tho source of energy in muscle. This asser- tion was shown to be untrue by the re- searches of Meissner and of Noit, who proved conclusively that creatin and creatinin arc excreted in the urine twenty-four hours after their absorp- tion, without loss. material which is neither oxidized nor decomposed can- not form source of energy, apart from the fact that the quantity of creatin and creatinin which is absorbed in bouillon is so small that it could not possibly be seriously regarded as the source of muscular energy"