CHAPTER III 



SUBSTANTIVE VARIATION 



Substantive variation has reference to differences in quality 

 as distinct from form or size. It regards the composition or 

 make-up of the body or its members, and refers to the constitu- 

 tion, or inherent nature, of the organism. 



Everybody recognizes differences in muscles, whether firm 

 and strong, or soft, flabby, and weak. We distinguish the bone 

 of a horse as dense or as soft, porous, and spongy. The horn 

 of the hoof is hard and tough or soft and " shelly." 



Meat is fine in grain and high in flavor or coarse in grain and 

 lacking in quality. 1 It is either juicy and rich or dry and taste- 

 less. The gamy flavor of wild meat, both of mammals and birds, 

 is especially tasteful to the huntsman, and whether due to breed- 

 ing or to feed, it is certainly characteristic of wild life everywhere. 

 No two cuts of meat are alike, whether wild or tame, and these 

 differences are so pronounced as to be commonly recognized ; 

 indeed, language abounds in adjectives descriptive of differences 

 in quality of food stuffs. 



At one time milk was sold on the quantitative basis only, but 

 now the per cent of fat is the basis of value. The intelligence of 

 an animal or of a man depends less upon the size and weight of 

 the brain than upon the quality of the brain matter and the 

 depth of the convolutions. 



One apple is sweet, another is sour, and still another is insipid. 

 One fruit is highly flavored, another is tasteless. The sugar of 

 beets, of cane, and of maple is the same ; but the two former are 

 simply sweet, while the latter is accompanied by a highly volatile 

 ether that adds a peculiarly delicious aroma. 2 



1 Pigs fed heavily on cotton-seed meal make a pork strongly flavored with 

 cotton-seed oil. See Grindley, Journal of American Chemical Society, Vol. XXVII. 



2 Isolated by Kedzie, of the Michigan Agricultural College, from samples fur- 

 nished by the author. 



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