

COMPENSATING NUTRIENT MATERIAL 41 



up the body heat and meeting the demand for energy 

 and tissue waste, that the excess is utilised for the 

 formation of fat and flesh. This excess nutrient 

 material must be carried in a more or less liquid state 

 to the point where it is actually laid down as fat or 

 flesh ; therefore, at any given time, it is reasonable to 

 expect that there will be present in the animal body a 

 certain, if not considerable amount of this " floating " 

 nutrient material. 



During starvation it would appear that the various 

 functions of the body are maintained, and in order to 

 do this the animal draws on the reserve which it has 

 stored up, first on the "floating" nutrient material, 

 then on the fat, and finally on the flesh. 



Kellner has shown that when an animal is deprived 

 of albuminoids in the ration, that nitrogen continues to 

 appear in the urine. The nitrogen excretion diminishes 

 rapidly at first after nitrogen is withheld, due, it is 

 believed, to the loss falling on the floating nitrogenous 

 nutrient material in the first instance. It appears that 

 energy may be stored up in the muscles, even minerals 

 may be placed in reserve in the bones, and both drawn 

 on when necessity arises. 



These wonderful compensating forces, or this power 

 of storing reserves, explains why it is that a milking 

 cow will continue for a time to yield average milk, even 

 when the ration is insufficient ; but if carried beyond a 

 certain point, the cow will lose flesh, or, in farming 

 language, " milk herself thin." 



Respiration. The blood is continually circulating 

 through the lungs, and as it enters is of a dark colour, 

 due to the carbon dioxide gas it contains. On its 

 passage through the lungs by way of the very fine 

 blood-vessels (capillaries), it comes in contact with the 



