18 



BULLETIN 433, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



Ash. — This constituent shows no regular changes, as was to have 

 been expected. 



Total nitrogen. — This constituent shows some irregular changes, 

 but the fact that there are apparent increases as well as decreases in 

 the nitrogen content of the incubated samples, as compared with the 

 fresh material, indicates that the differences are without significance. 



Total phosphorus. — The slight and irregular apparent changes 

 in this constituent would seem to be due to differences in the phos- 

 phorus content of the different muscle bundles from which the 

 samples were taken. By referring to Table 2 it may be noted that 

 the differences in total phosphorus content of the various muscle 

 bundles are approximately of the same size as the apparent changes 

 in the phosphorus content of the muscles noted in Table 7. There is 

 a peculiar regularity in these changes, however, that is hard to ex- 

 plain and which will be referred to later. 



Other jorms of phosphorus. — Inasmuch as the several samples 

 used in this experiment differed in respect to their total phosphorus 

 content, they must also have contained different initial amounts of 

 one or more of the several groups of phosphorus compounds. The 

 difference between the amount of a given form of phosphorus present 

 in the composite sample and the amount present in an incubated 

 sample, therefore, can not legitimately be taken to represent the 

 exact amount by which that constituent changed during incubation. 

 Presumably the initial ratio of a given form of phosphorus to total 

 phosphorus is more nearly constant throughout a given carcass than 

 is the actual percentage of the given form of phosphorus; so that in 

 the present experiment a more nearly accurate measure of the autolj'^tic 

 changes would seem to be afforded by the difference between that 

 ratio in the composite fresh sample and the corresponding ratio in the 

 incubated sample. The changes effected by autolysis in the various 

 forms of phosphorus will therefore be discussed in connection with 

 Table 11, where the data are presented in the form indicated. 



Table 6. — Co7nposition expressed in terms of percentages of fresh material. 



Serial 

 No. 



Description of sample. 



Stor- 

 age 

 period. 



Incu- 

 ba- 

 tion 



nod. 



Mois- 

 ture. 



Fat. 



Ash. 



Total 

 nitro- 

 gen, 



Am- 

 moni- 

 acal 

 nitro- 

 gen. 



Phosphorus. 



Total. 



Solu- 

 ble. 



Inso. 

 uble 



109 



110 

 111 

 112 

 113 

 120 

 121 

 122 

 124 

 125 



Composite sample, left hind 



quarter 



Sample No. 22 



Sample No. 17 



Sample No. 11 



Sample No. 12 



Sample No. 33 



Sample No. 18 



Sample No. .32 



Sample No. 3 



Sample No. 2 



Hours. 



24 

 24 

 24 

 24 

 24 

 24 

 24 

 24 

 24 

 24 



Daps. 







7 



14 



21 



28 

 42 

 64 

 77 

 93 

 100 



74.90 

 74.73 

 73.32 

 74.13 

 72.69 

 72.25 

 72.69 

 70.62 

 71.31 

 70.76 



2.23 

 2.51 

 4.11 

 2.48 

 3.51 

 3.03 

 3.44 

 3.90 

 2.95 

 2.59 



1.11 

 1.14 

 1.12 

 1.19 

 1.09 

 1.17 

 1.18 

 1.20 

 1.27 

 1.27 



3.49 

 3.57 

 3.51 

 3.62 

 3.46 

 3.67 

 3.42 

 3.74 

 .3.68 

 4.06 



0.0087 

 .0185 

 .0225 

 .0254 

 .0349 

 .0365 

 .0509 

 .0476 

 .0588 

 .0629 



0.206 

 .213 

 .207 

 .221 

 .209 

 .219 

 .208 

 .225 

 .225 

 .235 



0.164 

 .190 

 .193 

 .205 

 .193 

 .207 

 .196 

 .217 

 .215 

 .231 



0.042 

 .023 

 .014 

 .016 

 .016 

 .012 

 .012 

 .008 

 .010 

 .004 



