Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/721

 Rh of the influence of alcohol, and of common salt, leaving out of the account their local action in the mouth and stomach.

Does the same hold good for extract of meat? None of the known organic elements of this extract have an action analogous to that of caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol. Still it is certain that the potash which it contains brings about results which are essentially general. It renders the nerves and the muscles more excitable, and produces an acceleration of the contractions of the heart. Kemmerich was at first disposed to attribute the exciting and quickening action of the extract to the potash which it contains; and he has shown that meat-extract, reduced to ashes, produces a fatal effect when administered in the same quantity which is fatal before it is so reduced. He has demonstrated that a dose of chloride of potassium, containing the same quantity of potash which is contained in a half-pound of meat, accelerates the beating of the heart in a healthy subject. Yet, notwithstanding this, we are not to overlook local action, and suppose with Kemmerich that the extract of meat might give place to a small quantity of potash, and still leave the food equally nutritious.

We might accordingly attribute to the extract of meat the same property which characterizes animal food, viz., the production of an extraordinary degree of energy and vigor. Here Voit observes that this property does not belong to the extractive elements, but rather to the albuminoid materials, the proportion of which contained in animal food exceeds that contained in vegetables, as compared with the non-nitrogenized elements. Indeed, if we feed a carnivorous animal on a small quantity of meat, with a large amount of fat and meat-extract, he loses his natural liveliness. The same theory holds good for man, when fed on vegetable diet and the extract of meat. His vigor is far less than when meat forms the basis of his food. But on the other hand, if we give to an herbivorous animal food rich in albuminoid principles, if, for instance, we give to a horse an abundance of oats, the result will be the same as when a carnivorous animal is given animal food.

The action of meat-extract on the animal economy is, therefore, simply that of a condiment. Liebig attributes to it no other action, though the matter has frequently been involved in confusion. This action is, however, very important and beneficial. It is also possessed by certain vegetable extracts. Thus soups of high flavor and very strengthening may be made with the extract of the tomato, which has an acid reaction.

The foregoing remarks give only a partial view of the important function of condiments in promoting nutrition. Neither man nor animals take their food without some condiment. The simplest food always possesses some quality which serves as its condiment. It is only in virtue of this that vegetables gratify the palate. Thus in fruits for example, there are acids, volatile oils, etc. Most of the