SECRETARY'S REPORT. 109 



Subsequent to this, Boussingault, an eminent German chemist, 

 attempted to establish by a more scientific mode, a theoretical table 

 of the nutrition of articles of food, founded on the amount of nitro- 

 gen they contain; (because the nitrogenous or flesh-forming constitu- 

 ents in food, being the most important and most expensive materials, 

 their determination affords a better basis for form.ing an approximate 

 estimate of the entire relative value of articles of food than the de- 

 termination of the flit, or heat, or bone producing constituents ;) 

 but Tvhen he came to test by this table, their practical value, he 

 found it to be, in many cases, at variance with the experience of ac- 

 knowledged good farmers and feeders, and confessed that the amount 

 of nitrogen in a food must be regarded as one factor only, though a 

 very important one in estimating the nutritive equivalent. 



More recently still, Prof Way has made extensive and minute 

 investigations, and his results are undoubtedly the nearest approxi- 

 mation to accuracy which have yet been obtained. His chief inqui- 

 ries were, to ascertain, 



First, The proportion of albuminous or flesh-forming substances ; 

 that is to say, all which contain nitrogen, and which when digested, 

 go to form the muscles or flesh, and cartilages, and to repair the 

 constant waste which goes on in the animal system ; 



Next, The proportion of oily or fatty matters, which so directly 

 tend to increasing the fat of the system ; also the proportion of heat 

 producing principles or elements of respiration, as sugar, starch, 

 gum, &c., containing no nitrogen, but which are used in sustaining 

 animal heat, by furnishing carbon, and if not wholly needed for this, 

 assist in the formation of fat ; 



Next, The proportion of woody fibre; (inert and worthless;) and 



Lastly, The amount of mineral matter or ash, a portion of which 

 goes to the formation of bone. 



The researches of Prof. Way, covering as they do, all the differ- 

 ent classes of constituents, and having been conducted with great 

 skill and scrupulous care, may justly be deemed of great value, and 

 relied upon with considerable confidence. 



The results of his analysis of some of the natural and artificial 

 grasses, are as follows : 



