The St. Johns herald., 1896-02-01
STARVING ON BEEF TEA.
Likely to Disturb Many O,d-Tilne Cher
 is.icd DeIusious.

issicd Deiustous.
 It is generally believed that beef tea and animal broths Of all kinds are nourishing. The most recent medical authorities assure us that this is a mis- take. In order to combat what 1t 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:
 1.-The late Dr. Austin Flint remarked on one occasion that thousands of pa- tients have been starved to death while 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 taincd by the members of the medical profession, that beef extracts, beef tea, bouillon, animal broths, etc, are pecul- iarly nourishing in character. We can adduce no better evidence to the con trary than is afforded by the following paragraphs from 'Bungc'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 dclusive notions arc 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 naterial--a platefal of bOuillon can be made from teaspoonfrl of meat cxtract-could yield an eifectual source of nourishnent, that the eXoractives of meat were synonymous with concen- trated food
 "'Let us inquire what substances could render bouillon nutritious. The only article of food which meat yields to boiling water is gelatinc. It is well known that albumcn 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 a waterv 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 gelatinc is re- duced as much as possible, because it is in high degree liable to putrcfactive changes, and therefore likely to inter. ferc with the preservation of the prep. aration. The other constituents of bouillon are decomposition prod ucts of oodstuffs-products of the oxidations. and decompositions which take place in the animal organism They cannot be regarded aS nutri- tious, because they are no longer capa- ble of yielding any lzinetic energy, or at most such small amount that 1t is o1 no importance whatever.
 Nevertheless, until the most re cent tiIncs, crc2tin and creatinin which are among the chief constituents ot meat extract, were regarded as the source of energy in muscle. This asser tion was shown to be untrue by the re searches of Meissner and of Noit, who proved concluSivcly that creatin and creatinin are excreted in the urine twenty-four hours after their absorp tion, without loss. A material which k neither oxidized nor decomposed can not form 2 source of energy, apart iron the fact that the quantity of creatiI and cfcatinin which is absorbed il bouillon is so small that it could no possibly be seriously regarded as tht source of muscular energy.'"