357 



and contents," "pancreas," "milt or spleen," and the " blood," 

 the sum indicated is for the oxen about 7 per cent., for the sheep 

 about 1\ per cent., and for the pigs about 6|rds per cent. Exclu- 

 ding from this list the blood, which was more than ^rd of a per cent, 

 lower in amount in the pigs than in the other animals, the sums of 

 the per-centages of the other parts enumerated would -agree even 

 much more closely for the three descriptions of animal. 



With regard to the influence of progression in maturity and fatness 

 of the animal, upon the relative development of its several parts, the 

 results showed that the internal organs and other offal-parts pretty 

 generally increased in actual weight as the animals passed from the 

 lean to the fat or to the very fat condition. The per-centage pro- 

 portion to the whole live- weight of these offal-parts as invariably 

 diminished as the animals matured and fattened. The carcasses, on 

 the other hand, invariably increased, not only in actual weight, but 

 in proportion to the whole body. 



The conclusion is, that in the feeding or fattening of animals, the 

 apparatus which subserves for the reception and elaboration of the 

 food does not increase commensurately with those parts which it is 

 the object of the feeder to store up from that food. These parts are 

 comprised in the " carcass " or frame-work, with its covering of flesh 

 and fat. Of the carcasses which thus constitute the greater part of 

 the increase, the nitrogenous portions increase but little, whilst the 

 fat does so in very much larger proportion. Of the internal parts, 

 again, it is also the fat which increases most rapidly. 



The maturing process consists, then, in diminishing the propor- 

 tional amount in the whole body, of the collective muscles, tendons, 

 vessels, fleshy organs, and gelatigenous matters the motive and func- 

 tional, or so to speak, working parts of the body the constituents of 

 which alone can increase the amount of or replace the transformed 

 portions of similar matters in the human body. It consists, further, 

 in increasing very considerably the deposition of fat one of the 

 wow- flesh-forming, but most concentrated of the respiratory and fat- 

 storing constituents of human food. 



It is then in our meat-diet, of recognized good quality, to which 

 is generally attributed such relatively high flesh-forming capacity, 

 that we carefully store up such a large proportion of wow-flesh-form- 

 ing, but concentrated respiratory material. 



