ANIMAL GASTEATION. Y 



clianges vr ferrod to, tliei'e is an important mocTifica- 

 tion of tl''3 nutritive forces of tlie animal, or at least 

 a change in tlie direction of tlie>ir action. 



Wlien thns deprived of his virile functions the 

 animal ceases, in effect, to exist as one of a species, 

 but maintains an essentially^ individual life, in which 

 the assimilable nutriment which he absorbs, instead 

 of being in part appropriated to the office of repro- 

 duction of his kind, is all devoted to his own individ- 

 ual conservation. In animals not used for draught 

 purposes, or in other labor, when the food received 

 is ne.arly always in excess of the amount required for 

 the support of the organism, the result follows that 

 the surplus of nutritive substances (found sometimes 

 in great abundance) becomes stored in the connective 

 tissue and intermuscular structure, and that in this 

 way the flesh assumes superior and more nutritious 

 qualities than that of the unaltered animal, while, at 

 the same time, it loses the strong and peculiar odor 

 frequently communicated to it by the presence of the 

 testicxrlar apparatus and secretion in the entire 

 animal. 



This property of modification of function is proba- 

 bly still better illustrated in the effect of the opera- 

 tion upon cows, where we shall find not only the power 

 of accumulation of fat increased by castration, but, 

 above all, the milky secretion improved both in qual- 

 ity and quantity, and also in the duration of the flow. 



