MANUAL OF CATTLE-FEEBING. 121 



to digest and rosorb, daily, as mncli as 15 grms. of starch 

 per kilogramme of live weight, while a well-fed milk-cow, 

 or even a fattening ox, resorbs from its fodder, dailj'', not 

 mom than 12 to 18 grms. of carbhjdrates per kilogi^anime 

 live weight. Similar facts have been observed regarding 

 the resorption of protein, bnt not regarding that of fat, 

 which is digested by the carnivora in relatively far greater 

 quantity than by herbivora. 



A large part of our knowledge of the laws of the for- 

 mation of flesh is due to the labors at JMnnich of Karl 

 Voit, at first in conjunction with BischoJBF and, later, 

 alone and with v. Pettenkofer. These investigators have 

 made a gi*eat number of experiments, chiefly on dogs, de- 

 termining the gain or loss of flesh and the total amount 

 of protein decomposed in the body by the method de- 

 scribed in Chapter Y., and to them belong the honor, 

 both of having established a reliable method of investiga- 

 tion (see Chapter IV., pp. 91-97) and of having applied it 

 successfully to the solution of the important question of 

 the effect of food on the gain or loss of flesh. The results 

 stated in this chapter are larsjely those of the above-named 

 investigators. 



Protein Consumption. — In considering the laws of 

 flesh-formation, there are two parallel processes to be dis- 

 tinguished. 



In the first place, in every living organism a certain 

 quantity of albuminoid matter is daily destroyed in the 

 vital processes, and its nitrogen appears as urea, etc., in 

 the urine. 



The amount of protein or flesh thus destroyed may vary 

 greatly in different animals, or in the same animal at dif- 

 ferent times, but it can only cease entirely with the cessa- 

 tion of life, and cannot sink below a certain minimum 

 



