FINAL PRODUCTS. 



423 



C. Schmidt * has recently, in conjunction with Bidder, prose- 

 cuted an inquiry into the relations of nutrition, and these inquiries 

 are distinguished from all previous investigations of this nature by 

 the exactness of the methods employed, the comprehensive deter- 

 mination of all determinable amounts, and the copiousness of the 

 results. These experiments were made on cats and dogs, some of 

 which were abundantly, others sparingly supplied with meat, and 

 others again left for a prolonged time without any food. The 

 nutrient matters and the excretions generally were carefully inves- 

 tigated in reference to their proximate constituents, as well as to 

 the elements which they contained. 



We subjoin a table of the distribution of the elements of nutri- 

 tion in the organism of one of the carnivora, that we may be able 

 to add the results of Schmidt's investigation to the above experi- 

 ments of other observers; the first series of experiments were 

 made on a full grown cat, weighing 3228 grammes, which had as 

 much meat for a week as it could eat. 



A comparison between this table and the previous tables, cal- 

 culated from experiments on herbivorous animals, exhibits very 

 considerable differences in reference to the distribution of the 

 elements in the carnivora and the herbivora ; but the most striking 

 feature of this experiment vanishes when we consider that carbon 

 and hydrogen are for the most part conveyed to the latter animals 

 in an indigestible form, and that to a certain extent this is also the 

 case with the nitrogen, which is inclosed in the shape of albu- 

 minates in the cells forming the husks of the grain, which are 

 extremely inaccessible to the passage of the digestive fluids. 



We at once see that the water is absorbed in much smaller 

 quantity from the intestine in the herbivora than in the carnivora ; 

 the difference here is extremely great ; in horses and cows, on an 



Verdauungssafte und Stoffwechsel. S. 289-413. 



