In 1817, d'Arcet Jr., a chemist by trade, came up with a method for extracting gelatin from bones {and money from Parisian welfare coffers}. Public hospitals and poorhouses, having swallowed the preposterous claim that two ounces of d'Arcet's gelatin was the nutritional equivalent of three-plus pounds of meat, began serving soup made with the gelatin. So plentiful were
( Mary Roach )
[ Gulp: Adventures on the ]
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