Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 24.djvu/376

362 sheath or cell-membrane. It is evident that the loose or free juices will be extracted by simple diffusion; those enveloped in membranes by exosmosis through the membrane. The result must be the same in both cases: the meat will be permeated by the water, and the surrounding water will be permeated by the juices that originally existed within the meat. As the rate of diffusion—other conditions being equal—is proportionate to the extent of the surfaces of the diverse liquids that are exposed to each other, and, as the rate of osmosis is similarly proportioned to the exposure of membrane, it is evident that the cutting-up of the meat will assist the extraction of its juices by the creation of fresh surfaces; hence the well-known advantage of mincing in the making of beef-tea.

It is interesting to observe the condition of lean meat that has thus been minced and exposed for a few hours to these actions by immersion in cold water. On removing and straining such minced meat it will be found to have lost its color, and if it is now cooked it is insipid, and even nauseous if eaten in any quantity. It has been given to dogs and cats and pigs; these, after eating a little, refuse to take more, and, when supplied with this juiceless meat alone, they languish, become emaciated, and die of starvation if the experiment is continued. Experiments of this kind contributed to the fallacious conclusions described in No. 6 of this series. Although the meat from which the juices are thus completely extracted is quite worthless alone, and meat from which they are partially extracted is nearly worthless alone, either of them becomes valuable when eaten with the juices. The stewed beef of the Frenchman would deserve the contempt bestowed upon it by the prejudiced Englishman if it were eaten as the Englishman eats his roast beef; but when preceded by a potage containing the juices of the beef it is quite as nutritious as if roasted, and more easily digested.

Graham found that increase of temperature increased the rate of diffusion of liquids, and in accordance with this the extraction of the juices of meat is effected more rapidly by warm than by cold water, but there is a limit to this advantage, as will be easily understood by referring back to No. 3, in which are described the conditions of coagulation of one of these juices—viz., the albumen, which at the temperature of 134° Fahr. begins to show signs of losing its fluidity; at 160° becomes a semi-opaque jelly; and at the boiling-point of water is a rather tough solid, which, if kept at this temperature, shrinks, and becomes harder and harder, tougher and tougher, till it attains a consistence comparable to that of horn tempered with gutta-percha.

I have spoken of beef-tea, or Extractum Camis (Liebig's Extract of Meat), as an extreme case of extracting the juices of meat, and must now explain the difference between this and the juices of an ordinary stew. Supposing the juices of the meat to be extracted by maceration in cold water, and the broth thus obtained to be heated in