DEVELOPMENT 257 



on a limited ration will continue to increase in height, 

 length of body, and other parts of the skeleton, at the 

 same time becoming thinner and thinner in flesh. Even 

 during starvation the same tendency is apparent. This 

 fact has been noted by H. Aron, 1 who found that while 

 fasting, the skeleton grows at the expense of the other 

 body tissues. 



243. Factors influencing growth. The chief factors 

 influencing growth in the domestic animals are food, 

 heat, light, age, gestation and lactation. The chief 

 condition influencing growth in normal animals is the 

 food supply. 



244. Growth and food supply. While it is true that 

 the animal may for a limited time add to its tissues when 

 food is insufficient in either quantity or quality, it is 

 also true that a long-continued deficiency in the food 

 supply of young growing animals will invariably check 

 their growth. The check to growth in such cases may 

 be only temporary, or it may result in permanently decreas- 

 ing the normal size of the mature animal. (See Plates XIX 

 and XX.) 



245. Capacity to grow. The young animal that is 

 stunted as a result of insufficient food does not lose the 

 capacity to grow. The organism seems to be able to 

 continue to function and maintain a certain equilibrium. 

 If later a greater abundance of food is supplied, the rate 

 of growth may be reestablished. If after a period of 

 partial starvation the food supply is abundant, the rate 

 of growth may for a time be even more rapid than before. 

 That the capacity of an animal to grow is not destroyed 

 by stunting is shown by the results of an investigation 

 at the Missouri Experiment Station by Waters and 



1 H. Aron, Exp. Sta. Record, vol. 24, p. 765. 



s 



