On the origin, nature, and uses of Liebig's Extract of Meat : with an analytical comparison of other essences and preparations of meat / by J.L.W. Thudichum.

  • Thudichum, J. L. W. (John Louis William), 1829-1901.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the origin, nature, and uses of Liebig's Extract of Meat : with an analytical comparison of other essences and preparations of meat / by J.L.W. Thudichum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    PREFACE. At several periods of the present century various preparations and extracts of meat have been introduced to the attention of the medical profession and the public. Amongst these none have achieved such a genuine scientific, social, and commercial success as the extract which bears the illustrious name of Liebig. It Avas natural, therefore, that general attention should be directed upon it, and that a body of gentlemen, specially en- trusted by a most influential and beneficent Society with an inquiry into the nature of the food of the people and the means of its increase and improvement, should desire to obtain more complete and certain information about it than that which had existed previously. As I had for years given attention to and been deeply impressed with the importance to society of t'ae question of the meat supply, including the extraction as well as preser- vation of meat, it was not unnatural that I should be honovn-ed with the request of the Food Committee of the Society of Arts to afford them some information more particularly on Liebig's Extract of Meat, and the scientific issues and dietetic questions raised by this new article. The results of my interview with that Committee, whose counsels were guided by the novT Home Secretary, Mr. Bruce, were published in the ' Journal of the Society of Arts,' March 8 and 15, 1867. During the time which has elapsed since then my opinions have been freely canvassed, adopted by many, and been assented to by those Avho followed lines of inquiry similar to my own. The medical profession, as well as the public, seemed to have adopted the commodity itself as the best argument in its favour, so that in 1868 its consumption in this country experienced a great increase. A short time ago, however, there appeared in certain medical and belletristic periodicals, a succession of articles, which, by affecting