The most perfect meats are taken from well-fed, full-grown animals, that have not been over-worked, under-fed, or hard-driven; the flesh is firm, tender, and well-flavored, and abounds in nutritious 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 physi-cians 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.