Is there anything more romantic than giving your loved one a bottle of Valentine's Meat Juice this Valentine's Day?
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| A bottle of Valentine's Meat Juice still sealed and containing juice (RCSI/MI/1544) |
Brought into production in Richmond, VA, in 1871, Valentine’s Meat Juice became popular with orthodox physicians and was advertised in professional publications, including the British Medical Journal. Its inventor, Mann S.Valentine, told of its origins in his A Brief History of the Production of Valentine’s Meat Juice, together with Testimonials of the Medical Profession (1874).
A family member, thought to be his wife Anna Maria Grey Valentine, was in great danger from ‘a severe and protracted derangement of the organs of digestion.’ She could not
take normal food, yet none
of the available invalid preparations could sustain her.
She needed a safe, digestible and nutritious substance to keep her
from starvation. Through experimentation, Valentine worked out a process of rendering all the goodness of raw meat into a highly
condensed form. Unlike other meat extracts, which were manufactured through boiling or roasting, his product resulted from mechanical compression and low heat, retaining all the
protein of the raw flesh.
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| Leaflet that accompanies Valentine's Meat Juice containing testimonials from patients and endorsements from doctors |
Although the size of the bottle is only about 3" tall it is said to contain the juice from 4lb of beef. In 1909, the American Medical Association reported that the product did not contain any coagulable protein and was effectively no different from the average ‘meat extract’ produced with the use of heat. It was, however, through no fault of the manufacturer that Valentine’s Meat-Juice became embroiled in one of the most sensational murder cases of the 19th century. In 1889 a little bottle, laced with a solution of arsenic, formed part of the evidence in the trial of Florence Maybrick, who subsequently spent fifteen years in prison for the murder of her husband.
Mann S. Valentine made a substantial amount of money from the production of his health tonic. So much so that he became a collector of historical artefacts and fine art. In 1892 he laid the foundation stone for The Valentine Museum in Richmond, Virginia and provided the original bequest of his own personal collection.
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| Valentine's Meat Juice on display on the top shelf (RCSI/MI/1544) |
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| A selection of heritage material on display in RCSI Stephens Green |
The RCSI Heritage Collections are delighted to have two bottles, sealed and still containing 'juice', with it's original box and accompanying leaflets on display in newly installed exhibition cases in the College's historic Stephen's Green campus.
- Researched and written by Meadhbh Murphy