A CAGE FOR METABOLISM EXPERIMENTS 



ON GOATS 



A. R. ROSE 



{New York Agricultural Experiment Station, Gencva, New York) 



(With Plate 5) 



One of the first essentials in metabolism work is the provision 

 of known conditions under which true samples are always obtain- 

 able. When animals are used as subjects, much ingenuity has to 

 be exercised to secure such conditions. One of the most satis- 

 factory ways is to use carefully devised cages. These are, how- 

 ever, impractical in the case of so large an animal as the cow. 

 Sometimes harnesses have been employed to hold suitable recep- 

 tacles for excreta in place lipon such animals, but methods of this 

 character are troublesome and inadequate. In the New York Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station it was found most feasible, when cows 

 were used in metabolism experiments, to keep men constantly on 

 the watch to collect the urine and düng in large receptacles made 

 for the purpose. This method is quite laborious and expensive, 

 however, and led to consideration of the use of some animal which 

 could be more easily caged than the cow, and would serve similar 

 purposes in metabolism investigations. 



The goat was chosen. It seems stränge that an animal with so 

 many qualifications for this kind of work has received so little 

 attention in this connection. It is hardy by nature; of convenient 

 size to be easily handled; takes rations and yields excreta of very 

 satisfactory bulk. It may well represent the herbivora in animal 

 experimentation, just as the dog does the Carnivora. It has the 

 advantage over the rabbit, so frequently selected as a typical her- 

 bivorous animal, in that it lends itself to problems involving a study 

 of lactation ; and over the cow usually employed in such cases, when- 

 ever the problem requires an expensive ingredient in the ration, 

 since the food consumption of the goat is only about one tenth of 



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