AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 471 



Wo all know that the bodies of animals consist of fluid and 

 solid parts. The solid portions are formed of fat, muscles and 

 bones; the dry matter contained in 100 parts of the muscles is 

 about 25 per cent, and the water 75; so that if we add one hun- 

 dred pounds to the weight of an animal in the shape of muscle, 

 only 25 pounds of solid matter requires to be incorporated Avitli 

 its system. If you will take the trouble to wash the lean part 

 of mutton or beef, for a short time, the blood will entirely disap- 

 pear, and the muscle becomes perfectly white, and is called by 

 chemists fibrin, one hundred pounds of Avhich contains about onu 

 and a half pounds of saline, or inorganic matter, two-thirds of 

 which is phosphate of lime. 



The fat of beasts consists of a solid and fluid portion; this may 

 be observed when fat is submitted to pressure, the fluid immedi- 

 ately runs out, it is identical in all animals, and is called, chemi- 

 cally speaking, oleine. A larger quantity is found in the fat of 

 the hog, than the sheep, and that is the reason why the fat of hogs 

 is softer than mutton suet. Thus we manufacture oil from lard, 

 and stearine from suet. The fat of animals varies much among 

 dilTerent races. The solid fat of human beings is almost precisely 

 like the fat of geese, and is called margarine. But that of the 

 horse, cow and sheep, differs from that of man, and is called 

 stearine. 



The bones of animals like the muscles, consist of combustible 

 and incombustible portions; from the combustible we extract glue, 

 gelatine, &c., and from the incombustible, phosphate and carbo- 

 nate of lime; about five and a half per cent of an animal consists 

 of hair, wool and horn. 



Of the fluid parts of the body, blood is the most abundant; the 

 body of a man contains generally about twelve, and an ox seven- 

 ty-five pounds, varying a trifle in each according to the size; and 

 it consists by analysis of water eighty per cent., organic matter, 

 nineteen per cent, saline matter, one per cent. 



Now the question is, from whence does the body obtain all these 

 matters 1 may they all be found in the food '? one would naturally 

 imagine this to be an easy question to answer, that they must be 

 obtained from the food. The organic part of the food certainly 

 contains the elements of which the organic parts of the body are 

 composed. The inorganic matter, also, in the food, such as mag- 

 nesia, potash, soda, sulphur, &c., exist in the inorganic parts of 

 the body. 



