8 MAUTUAL OF CATTLIiJ-FEEDINa. 



still more, falling, according to the experiments of Lawes 

 and Gilbert, below 50 per cent., and in one case (a very 

 fat sheep) to 35.2 per cent, of the whole anhnal, or 33 per 

 cent, of the dressed carcass- 



It is sometimes stated that, in. fattening, the body loses 

 water, its place being taken by nitrogenous matters and 

 especially by fat, but the author has not been able to iind 

 any account of experiments which substantiate this view. 



Fat animals, it is true, contain a smaller percentage of 

 water and a larger percentage of fat than lean ones, but 

 this is not sufficient to prove the point, for an inr^rease in 

 the absoliote amount of fat contained in an animal would 

 cause a decrease in the relative amomit (percentage) of all 

 the other ingredients, water included. 



The only method by which the truth of the above view 

 can be determined, is to compare the alsolmte weight of 

 water, fat, albuminoids, etc., in lean and fat animals of the 

 same breed and as nearly alike as possible. 



Such comparisons have been made by Lawes and Gil- 

 bert,* in the following manner. Ten animals of different 

 kinds, and in different stages of fatness, were slaughtered, 

 and the percentages of ash, albuminoids, fat, and water in 

 the whole animal determined, and by this means data were 

 obtained for estimating the absolute amounts of these sub- 

 stances in the body of a living animal whose weight was 

 known. 



A large number of animals were then fattened, and, 

 their composition before and after being estimated as 

 above, it was easy to determine the amount of each in- 

 gredient which had been produced, and from this the per- 

 centage composition of the increase in weight. 



♦Jour Roy. Agr. Soc. Series I., XXL, 45G. 



