One of the most efficient alimentary preparations is beef, desiccated and reduced to a state of powder. This is largely employed by French physicians as a restorative means in phthisis and other wasting diseases. The manner of its preparation is as follows: Lean beef (the round answers well) is chopped into small particles, and is then carefully dried. The mode of drying is an important element in the process. It should be dried on a water-bath or in an oven, the heat of which can be kept within the proper range. It is important not to carry the desiccation too far. When sufficiently dried, the beef is then ground in as fine a powder as an ordinary coffee-mill will make. The time usually occupied in the drying depends on the degree of heat and the size of the pieces, and ranges from ten to twenty hours. If carefully done, the beef loses nothing of its constituents but its water, and preserves its real nutritive qualities. The powder for administration can be mixed with broth, milk, soup, eggnog, and other prepared liquid foods, into which it may be stirred quickly and tossed off. Debove, the author of this forced alimentation, finds that in this way two to four pounds of beef may be given daily, added to other useful foods. It has been shown that the stomach not only receives this large quantity of food materials, but digests them satisfactorily. The author, who has had considerable experience with this method of forced alimentation, is able to speak with confidence as to its nutritive value.

Blood

The blood of beef carefully desiccated is now furnished in great quantity, and is used internally and by rectal injection as a means of improving nutrition. It is almost the equivalent of dried beef.

Fluid beef preparations are numerous. Beef juice is prepared extemporaneously by broiling quickly over a hot fire and then subjecting small pieces to strong pressure in a lemon-squeezer. Valentine's meat juice is prepared by subjecting partly cooked beef to powerful compression in suitable presses. One of the most recent preparations is the beef juice of Wyeth & Brother, and it is said to contain the largest proportion of albumoses. Johnson's fluid beef and Bovinine are two good representatives of this class.