FATTENING CATTLE. 



505 



forms fleshy filiies for soft muscular tissue, 

 by which t'.io motions of the body arc per- 

 formed ; and from tlie blood are all the dit- 

 fcrciit bodily secretions which are necessary 

 for the healthy existence of the animal se- 

 creted and i)erfonr.ed ; the blond supplies 

 carbon to the Inngs for kee[)inj; up the animal 

 heat, with fat and oily fluids deiiosited in the 

 softer tissues as well as in the very substances 

 of the bones themselves, as a store from 

 which Nature can extract a due supply when 

 necessity compels her ; lastly, the blood is 

 the true moving power l)y which die whole 

 aiiimal machine is put into nujlion, just as 

 steam is to the Bteam-eiigine, and coals as 

 fuel to the fire. 



As far as I have proceeded I have only 

 spoken of that part of the food fiom which 

 animal flesh is natmally formed ; i. e., the 

 gluten extracted from the vegetable, the al- 

 bumen, and the casein: my sell'-imiiosed 

 task, however, is not yet complete. 1 have 

 now to take into consideiation the oHices 

 which are fidfilied by the sugar, starch, ginn, 

 oil or fat, which we find, by exuminalion, con- 

 stitute so laige a proportion of the fiiod of 

 man, and the principal of the lower orders of 

 animals. Now, we find from observation, 

 that every animal has a temperature above 

 that of the surrounding atmosphere ; and 

 physiologists have denominated it the animal 

 heat, which, in those animals domesticated 

 by man, are found to be, on an average, about 

 100° of Fahrenheit's thermometer — in man 

 it is about 97°, and we find that it continues 

 much the same under every kind of circum- 

 stance, whether we live beneath a tropical 

 sun, a more temperate region, or the frozen 

 climes of the North. 



The animal heat onginates in the body ; it 

 is created by the chemical combination, or, if 

 I may employ the tenn, the combustion of 

 the elements which enter into the fomiation 

 of starch, with the other non-nitrogenous con- 

 stituent j)articlcs of the food, united with the 

 oxygen of the air, which is received into the 

 lungs during the function of inspiration; and 

 likewise by a portion that is absorbed through 

 the skin. 



Upon examining the atmospheric air which 

 we breathe, we find, upon submitting it to a 

 chemical analysis, that it is comi)osed of 

 twenty-one parts of oxygen and seventy-nine 

 parts of nitrogen, with so small a quantity of 

 carbonic acid gas that its amount cannot be 

 calculated in a given quantity of air ; yet of 

 course an immense proportion must exist, for 

 it is supposed that the atmosphere extends 

 forty-five miles at least in hight, and presses 

 at the ratio of 1.^ lbs. upon every square 

 inch : this was di.scovered by Torricelli and 

 Galileo hi the I7th century. However, when 

 the air we have inspired has been expelled 

 from the body, we find that it has undergone 

 but little if any change ; the oxygen, how- 

 ever, has disappeared, and been replaced by 

 an equable quantity of carbonic acid gas, 

 with a small quantity of aqueous vapor : the 1 



(1025) 



|ir(i[)ortion of animal heat which attends this 

 chemical cliaiige, is consequent upon the 

 aincjuiit of carbon and hydrogen which is con- 

 sumed. The heat which is thus produced is 

 occasioned by exactly the same ciiemical ac- 

 tion as that which cau.ses the combustion of 

 wood in a stove, or the fat of a lamp or can- 

 dle, and the pioducts of which are exactly 

 the same : the carbon and the hydrogen of 

 the f(Kid combine with the oxygen that is sup- 

 plied by the atmosphere, and heat is gen- 

 erated in the; body in proj)ortion to the quan- 

 tity which is consumed. In the stove or 

 lainp the same changes take place, the fuel 

 being composed of similar elements entering 

 into the composition of the food ; and the re- 

 sults of the combustion are precisely the same, 

 the combination being less energetic in the 

 body than in the stove or lamp. 



Now, how is it in man ? In a full-grown 

 adult, if we take the weight of the carbon 

 which is disengaged in the excretions, from 

 the weight of the carbon contained in the 

 food that is consumed during the twenty-four 

 hours, we shall soon find that the remainder 

 will amount to somewhere about foiirteen 

 ounces, and this is assimilated with the com- 

 ponent parts of the body ; die weight of which, 

 however, does not increase, for it is a well 

 known philosophical axiom, that fourteen 

 ounces of carbon will require tliirty-.seven 

 ounces of oxygen* for its traiisfoirnation into 

 carbonic acid, which passes off fiom the lungs 

 and skin. Thus, in this simple manner, we 

 can easily comprehend how it is that the 

 enonnous quantity of oxygen which is intro- 

 duced hito the animal body by the progress 

 of inspiration, and the great pioportion of 

 carbon which is derived from the f()od con- 

 sumed, are removed from the body ; and like 

 wise, how it is that the fViod requiicd fiirsup 

 porting the animal in its noiTnal condition is 

 in exact proportion to the quantity of oxygen 

 that is absorbed. Now, we find that a horse 

 consumes daily, in his food, upon an average, 

 eighty-nine ounces of pure carbon, and a cow 

 seventy ounces; the f(:)riner requires 212!|. 

 ounces, the latter 18fi^ ounces of oxygen, in 

 order to transform the consumed carbon into 

 carbonic acid. I have already stated that, 

 in addition to the constituents which I have 

 named, the vegetable is found upon chem- 

 ical analysis to contain a small quantity of 

 fatty matter in addition to the eaithy and 

 saline substances of which it is composed. 

 The question is now to be answered, What 

 are the purposes which they answer in the 

 animal economy ? Every animal that is in a 

 state of sound health has a layer of tiit. which 

 is situated between the skin and the muscles, 

 and likewise between the muscles themselves, 

 by which means they have great freedom of 

 motion. Fat is also deposited in the body of 

 the animal, particularly in the neighborhood 

 of the bowels, also attached to a jKirtion of 

 them, and enveloping the kidneys, (where it 



* One ounce of oxygen equale 1416'5 cubic inches. 



