BEEF. See MEAT PACKING; MEATS AND MEAT PRODUCTION.
a popular name for the yeomen of the guard of the sovereign of Great Britain, a body instituted at the coronation of Henry VIII in 1485. There are now 100 in service, and 70 supernumeraries. They are dressed after the fashion of the time of Henry VII. The warders of the Tower of London, who wear a similar uniform, are also so called. See YEOMEN OF THE GUARD.
a preparation made from raw beef and often employed in nursing. It is serv for stimulation or for nourishment largely according to the method of its prepara tion. As usually made, or as prepared from ready-made beef extracts, it has very little food value, but is a strong heart stimulant. When fresh beef is finely chopped and its juice squeezed from it and flavored, to take away the raw taste, the extract obtained is rich in the muscle juices and is highly nutritious. It is often thus prepared for infants and invalids. If, however, thejuice thus obtained is mixed with water and the compound is boiled, as is the usual manner, all of the muscle proteids are coagulated, as a scum, and the muscle salts, or extractives, remain in solution. The nutri
tious portions, the scum, are thrown away and the extractives retained in the tea. In this form the nutritive value is slight, unless the coagula ted proteid is retained. Ordinary meat extracts are mixtures of the meat extractives, xanthin, hypoxanthin, creatin, creatinin, etc. These are heart tonics but not nourishing. Their use is contraindicated in irritable hearts, in gout, and in any condition in which it is thought that the patient is not breaking down the normal amount of proteid matter. Broths are made of other meats.
a popular name for the wood of several Australian trees of the genus Casuarina (q.v.), which forms the type of a family Casuarinocece. The trees have been com pared to gigantic horse-tails. They have pend ant leafless branches, and apetalous moncecious flowers, the male ones being in spikes, and the female in heads. The wood is of a reddish color (whence the name), hard, and close grained, and used chiefly for fine ornamental work.