924 EXPERIMENTS OF MAGENDIE. 



The opinion that substances not containing 

 nitrogen are incapable of supporting animal life, 

 has been erroneously inferred from some experi- 

 ments of Magendie, who found that when dogs 

 were fed on sugar, butter, olive oil, or gum, sepa- 

 rately, with only water, they died in from thirty- 

 one to thirty-four days. But he also found after- 

 wards, that when rabbits and guinea pigs were 

 fed on wheat, barley, oats, carrots, or cabbage, 

 separately, with water alone, they died with all 

 the symptoms of starvation in fifteen days, but 

 suffered no ill effects when fed on the same 

 articles simultaneously, or in succession. (Phy- 

 siology Trans, by Milligan, vol. ii. p. 486, 2nd ed.) 

 It has also been clearly established by a Report 

 of the Gelatine Committee, (in the Comptes 

 Rendus des Seances de 1'Academie des Sciences, 

 vol. v. Aout. 1841,) ths&jibrfa, albumen, and gela- 

 tine, when taken alone and separately, will not 

 support the life of dogs, although carnivorous 



several years on refined sugar alone. It is therefore impossible 

 to admit the assertion of Liebig, that starch, sugar, gum, and oil 

 are incapable of being transformed into blood by the chemistry 

 of animal life. For it is manifestly not true, as he maintains, 

 that the quantity of nitrogenized matter in the food of herbivora 

 is amply sufficient for the growth and developement of their tis- 

 sues, and for the supply of waste. If this were the case, a cow 

 fed on 42 Ibs. of turnips would consume only 2 oz. of nitrogenized 

 matter; whereas the milk of a cow giving 16 quarts would con- 

 tain above 20 oz. of caseine, which contains about 16 per cent, 

 of nitrogen, or 3-20 oz. 



