LESS ENERGETIC THAN IN HERBIVORA. 81 



skin is destitute of perspiratory pores, and because 

 they consequently lose, for equal bulks, much less 

 heat than graminivorous animals, which are com- 

 pelled to restore the lost heat by means of food 

 adapted for respiration. 



How different is the energy and intensity of 

 vegetative life in the graminivora. A cow, or a 

 sheep, in the meadow, eats, almost without interrup- 

 tion, as long as the sun is above the horizon. Their 

 system possesses the power of converting into or- 

 ganised tissues all the food they devour beyond the 

 quantity required for merely supplying the waste of 

 their bodies. 



All the excess of blood produced is converted 

 into cellular and muscular tissue ; the graminivorous 

 animal becomes fleshy and plump, w^hile the flesh 

 of the carnivorous animal is always tough and 

 sinewy. 



If we consider the case of a stag, a roe-deer, 

 or a hare, animals which consume the same food as 

 cattle and sheep, it is evident that, when well sup- 

 plied with food, their growth in size, their fattening, 

 must depend on the quantity of vegetable albumen, 

 fibrine, or caseine, which they consume. With free 

 and unimpeded motion and exercise, enough of 

 oxygen is absorbed to consume the carbon of the 

 gum, sugar, starch, and of all similar soluble consti- 

 tuents of their food. 



But all this is very differently arranged in our 

 domestic animals, when, with 'an abundant supply 



G 



