234 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



four cats, two young clogs, two young rabbits, five rabbit em- 

 bryos, and of a number of butterfly chrysalides, and the 

 amount of soda and of potash in different articles of food 

 was found. From the numbers thus obtained, and given in 

 tabular form, interesting conclusions w T ere drawn, in regard 

 to the relation existing between the food and the composi- 

 tion of the body, as regards the amount of the alkalies and 

 chlorine present. In vegetable food the excess of potash 

 over soda, compared by equivalents, is much greater than 

 in human milk, or those in that of herbivorous animals ; so 

 that, if the proportions of potash and soda in milk are to be 

 considered as the most favorable to nutrition, the addition 

 of salt to all the more important vegetable articles of food 

 is indicated. The amount of soda in the organism varies 

 within as wide limits in the animal kingdom as in the vege- 

 table, and the amount of soda, potash, and chlorine in milk 

 is not constant, but varies with the food and other condi- 

 tions. The young of the carnivorous animals receive in 

 their milk potash and soda, and generally all the fixed in- 

 gredients, in almost the same proportions required for their 

 growth ; and while in the bodies of the young of herbivo- 

 rous animals the relative amounts of soda and potash are 

 found to differ from those of the carnivorous animals, the 

 relative amounts of these substances secreted in the milk by 

 which they are nourished conform to this difference. Pro- 

 longed feeding, however, upon substances rich in potash and 

 poor in soda will increase the relative amount of the former 

 in the milk. 19 C, Jan. 23, 1875, 35. 



