elements. On the
other hand, the flesh of hard-worked or ill-fed creatures is tough,
hard, and tasteless.

All animal flesh is composed of albumen, fibrin, and gelatin, in the
proportion of about one fifth of its weight; the balance of its
substance is made up of the juice, which consists of water, and those
soluble salts and phosphates which are absolutely necessary for the
maintenance of health. It is this juice which is extracted from beef in
the process of making beef tea; and it is the lack of it in salted meats
that makes them such an injurious diet when eaten for any length of time
to the exclusion of other food.

The flesh of young animals is less nutritious, and less easily
masticated than that of full grown animals, on account of its looser
texture. Beef, which has firmer and larger fibres than mutton, is harder
to digest on that account, but it contains an excess of strengthening
elements that is not approached by any meat, save that of the leg of
pork.

The tongues of various animals, the fibres of which are small and
tender, are nutritious and digestible; the heart is nutritious because
it is composed of solid flesh, but the density of its fibre interferes
with its digestibility; the other internal organs are very nutritious,
and very useful as food for vigorous persons on that account, and
because they are cheap. The blood of animals abounds in nutritive
elements; the possibility of its use as a general food has closely
engaged the attention of European scientists; notably of the members of
the University of Copenhagen, who recommend its use in the following
forms, in which it is not only suitable for food, but also capable of
preservation for an indefinite time. First, as sausages, puddings and
cakes--being mixed with fat, meal, sugar, salt, and a few spices--to
serve as a much cheaper substitute for meat, and intended especially for
the use of the poor classes; and second, as blood-chocolate, more
especially suitable to be used in hospitals, as well as otherwise in
medical practice, in which latter form it has been recommended by
Professor Panum, at a meeting of physicians at Copenhagen, and is now
being employed in some of the hospitals of that city.

Bones consist largely of animal matter, and earthy substances which are
invaluable in building up the frame of the body. In order to obtain all
their goodness, we must crush them well before putting them into soups
or stews.

=Beef.=--The flesh of