274 ANIMAL FOOD. 



kind of food for a longer time than vegetable food. Animal food 

 is also easily cooked and appears to be more easily digested than 

 vegetable; it increases the amount of fibrin, phosphates and other 

 salts, and the number of red corpuscles in the blood ; it produces 

 firmness of muscle, and increases the urinary secretion both in 

 quantity and in amount of effete nitrogenous matter, necessitating 

 the consumption of an increased quantity of fluid. Vegetable food 

 has a tendency to increase the deposition of fat. Mr. Banting found 

 that by lessening the amount of vegetable diet he was enabled to 

 reduce his corpulence; this result might be due not only to diminu- 

 tion of the fat-producing elements, but also to the increased oxyda- 

 tion through the lungs induced by the excess of nitrogenous mater- 

 ials. Physiological considerations and experience teach us that a 

 mixed diet as a general rule is best adaptecf to the requirements of 

 the body. 



Animal food comprises the different parts of animals; eggs, 

 milk and its products. 



Comparative Values of Flesh The flesh of young 

 animals is more tender than that of old, but it is not so easily di- 

 gested. The flesh of middle-aged animals is more nutritive and 

 has a fuller flavor than that of young. The flesh of old animals, 

 though nutritive, is often very tough. Young and quickly fed ani- 

 mals have more water and fat in tneir flesh, whilst older and well 

 fed animals have flesh of a firmer touch and fuller flavor and are 

 richer in nitrogen. The former may be more delicate, the latter are 

 more nutritious; animals of middle age, therefore, afford the most 

 digestible and fullest flavored food. The larger the animal the 

 coarser the meat. The flesh of the female is more finely grained 

 and delicate than that of the male. Animals that have been de- 

 prived of their reproductive organs are larger, fatter, more tender 

 and form better food than those that have not. During the breed- 

 ing season flesh is unsuitable for food. The flesh of wild animals 

 has less fat than that of well fed domestic animals, but it has more 

 flavor. The character and flavor of the meat are much affected by 

 the food eaten. The fat of cattle fed on oilcake is yellow; the flesh 

 of sheep fed on turnips has a flavor of the vegetable; that of the 

 mountain sheep is affected by the fragrant herbage on which they 

 graze. Violent exercise just before death makes flesh more 

 tender than if the animal had been quiet. The removal of 

 blood in slaughtering, while it involves waste of nutritive material, 

 improves the flavor of the flesh and renders it more easy of preser- 

 vation. Hanging the meat improves its tenderness. But the best 

 meat may be rendered unwholesome by decomposition. Low-priced 

 meat may prove very dear, for the animal may have suffered from 

 disease and thus become unfit for human food. Animals that have 

 been saturated with powerful medicines are also unfit for food, since 

 serious disorders are often produced and been known to be suffered 

 by those who have eaten the flesh of cattle so treated. 



