of the Fat of the Animal Body, 443 



only slowly digestible, or indigestible, cellulose than the sheep, 

 and the sheep again very much more than the pig. The usual 

 food of oxen and sheep, consisting as it does in large proportion 

 of unripened or imperfectly ripened vegetable matter, is, in fact, 

 essentially crude, containing not only a considerable amount of 

 defectively elaborated and probably unassimilable nitrogenous 

 substance, but also a large proportion of comparatively indiges- 

 tible non-nitrogenous matter. Accordingly complexity and 

 great capacity of stomach, and slow progress of the food through 

 the organ, are characteristics of the structure and digestive pro- 

 cess of the animals. 



Of intestines and contents, on the other hand, the ox has a 

 less proportion than the sheep, and the sheep considerably less 

 than the pig. 



In fact, the relatively very small proportion of stomach and 

 contents, and relatively very large proportion of intestines and 

 contents in the pig are very striking. But when we consider 

 that his most appropriate fattening food consists of ripened seeds 

 and highly starchy roots, containing little indigestible woody 

 fibre, and their non-nitrogenous constituents almost wholly in 

 the form of starch, the primary change of which is known to 

 take place almost throughout the length of the intestinal canal, 

 the reason of the relatively small proportion of stomach, and 

 large proportion of intestines, seems to be at once apparent. 



Passing from a consideration of the receptacles and, so to 

 speak, first laboratories of the food, we will only remark, in refer- 

 ence to the remaining results given in the upper portion of the 

 Table, that, of what may be called the further elaborating organs 

 of the body, and their fluids — the heart, liver, lungs, blood, &c. 

 — the proportion, taken in the aggregate, is strikingly similar 

 in the three descriptions of animal. 



The second division of the Table shows that, notwithstanding 

 its much larger proportion of stomach and contents, the ox con- 

 sumes, for a given live-weight within a given time, only about 

 three-fourths as much dry substance of food as the sheep, and 

 less than half as much as the pig with its very small proportion 

 of stomach and contents. The ox gives, too, in proportion to a 

 given live-weight within a given time, much less increase than 

 the sheep, and only from one-fifth to one- sixth as much as the pig. 



Reckoned in proportion to a given amount of dry substance 

 of food consumed, the ox gives less both of total dry substance 

 in increase, and of fat in increase, than the sheep, and only 

 about one-third as much of either as the pig, whilst the ox voids 

 of dry substance in faeces and urine the largest proportion, the 

 sheep somewhat less, and the pig little more than half as much 

 as the sheep, and less than half as much as the ox. 



