194 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



he is adapted for a concentrated form of food. One illustration, in 

 passing, may be adduced on this point. Table VI. shows the pro- 

 portion of the stomach, by weight, in a given live weight of oxen, 

 sheep, pigs, and man : — 



Table VI. — Proportion of Stomach in different Animals. 



Stomach in 100 lbs. live weight : — 



Oxen 51 ounces. 



■ Pigs 14 " 



Sheep ■. 39 



Man 6 



Relative weight does not, of course, necessarily represent with 

 numerical exactness relative capacity or size. But there is little 

 doubt that there is a gradation in the capacity of the stomach 

 relatively to a given weight of the body in the animals enumer- 

 ated, in the order, and to a great extent in the degree indicated 

 by the figures given in the Table. Admitting this to be the case, 

 we have seen that the sheep, with its less proportion of stomach 

 than the ox, takes a somewhat more concentrated food ; and that 

 the pig, with its much less proportion of stomach than the sheep, 

 requires a much more concentrated food than the latter. May we 

 not conclude that man in his turn, with his less proportion of 

 stomach than the pig, will also appropriately take a more concen- 

 trated food than his useful friend ? 



The food of man is, indeed, very closely allied, in a chemical 

 point of view, to that of the pig. The staple of the food of both 

 the fattening pig, and man, is cereal grain. The pig, it is true, 

 consumes the husk as well as the farinal portion, whilst man does 

 not ; but we know that this pi'oportion of indigestible woody mat- 

 ter is very nearly the limit of that which is appropriate for the 

 fattening pig, and that on the addition of a small quantity of bran 

 the proportion of increase diminishes, and that of the dry sub- 

 stance of the food voided as excrement increases. The only other 

 essential difference is, that the pig takes, as a rule, the whole of 

 his nitrogenous compounds in the form of vegetable products, and 

 a much larger proportion of starch, and other non-nitrogenous 

 compounds, more bulky in relation to their respiratory and fat- 

 forming capacity than fat itself. Not, indeed, that the pig is at 

 all unapt or unwilling to adopt even still more closely the diet of 

 man ; for he will take animal flesh and fat when he can get them, 

 and, what is more, he likes them better cooked than raw. 



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