472 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



It would therefore seem that the body obtains from the food 

 all the elements necessary to build it up and sustain it. But the 

 chemist asks, in what state do these elements enter into the body 1 

 Are the substances of which the food consists decomposed after 

 they are eaten by the animal ? are their parts torn to pieces, and 

 then re-united, so as to form the compounds of which the mus- 

 cles, bones and blood consist? Do the vital powers Avork for the 

 existence of the body ? Do they build up the various elements 

 which compose the body 1 or are all these substances prepared in 

 the food which is fed to animals '? Chemical researches answer 

 these important questions, thus : 



1 . Flour of wheat, and our other cultivated grains, consists, in 

 part of gluten, of albumen, or of casein. These substances all 

 contain nitrogen, and are identical in constitution with each 

 other, and with the fibrin of which the muscles of animals chiefly 

 consist. The substance of the muscles, therefore, exists ready 

 formed, in the food which the animal eats. The labor of tlic 

 stomach is restricted merely to select these substances from the 

 food, and despatch them to the parts of the body Avhere they arc 

 required. We see then that the plant prepares and compounds 

 the building materials of the muscles, and the stomach selects and 

 sends them forward to perform their several duties. 



2. We observe, therefore, that in all our crops, there exists a 

 proportion of fatty or oily matter, analagous to the several kinds 

 of fat which exists in the bodies of animals; so that in regard to 

 this portion of the body, the vegetable performs nearly all the 

 labor. 



3d. The bones, muscles and blood contain phosphates of lime, 

 magnesia and common salt. These all exist ready formed in the 

 vegetable food, associated with gluten and albumen, and the plaufc 

 extracts them from the soil. Therefore it will be seen that the 

 elements of which the bodies of animals are formed, exist in the 

 food, put together in the state in which they are wanted to form 

 the solids and fluids of the animal body. The plant tliereforo 

 affords the raw materials, and the animal puts them into proper 

 shape, and conveys them to the parts to be built up. When a 

 cow, sheep or ox is turned into a meadow, they eat from sun to 

 sun almost without interruption, and their systems possess the 

 power of converting into organized tissues all the food they 

 devour beyond the quantity required for merely supplying the 

 waste of their bodies. 



