1883.] 



Composition of Animal Food. 



343 



of fat than of starch, such animal food contributed a much higher 

 proportion of non-nitrogenous substance, reckoned as starch, to one of 

 nitrogenous substance than bread. In fact the introduction of our 

 staple animal foods, to supplement our otherwise mainly farinaceous 

 diet, did not increase, but reduced, the relation of the flesh-forming 

 material to the respiratory and fat-forming capacity of the food. 



Finally, the actual amount, and the percentage, of total ash, in most 

 of the internal organs, and some other separated parts, were given. It 

 was shown that the percentage of total mineral matter, like that 

 of the nitrogenous substance, decreased, not only in the entire body, 

 but especially in the collective carcass parts, as the animals matured. 

 It was the object of the present communication to record the results of 

 the complete analysis of the ashes of the collective carcass parts, of the 

 collective offal parts, and of all parts, of each of the ten animals. 

 Forty complete ash analyses had been made. 



As was to be expected, more than four-fifths of the ashes consisted 

 of phosphoric acid, lime, and magnesia ; these making up the largest 

 amount in the ash of the oxen, less in that of sheep, and less still in 

 that of pigs. Potash and soda were also prominent constituents. 

 Assuming, for the purposes of illustration merely, that one of phos- 

 phoric acid was combined with three of fixed base, the ashes of the 

 ruminants showed an excess of base ; whereas, according to the same 

 mode of calculation, the ashes of the pigs showed no such excess. 



It was, unfortunately, only in the case of the offal parts of the pigs 

 that the ash of the chiefly bony, and that of the chiefly soft parts, had 

 been analysed separately. The results showed a considerable excess 

 of acid, especially phosphoric, in the ash of the non-bony portions ; 

 presumably, in part at any rate, due to the oxidation of phosphorus 

 in the incineration. In further reference to the point in question, it 

 may be stated that although the oxen and sheep show a higher per- 

 centage of total nitrogenous substance than the pigs, yet the amount 

 of pure ash yielded from the non-bony parts is higher in proportion 

 to that from the bones in the case of the pigs than in that of the 

 ruminants. 



Comparing the percentage composition of the ashes of the entire 

 bodies of the different animals, the chief points of distinction were that 

 — in the ash of the pigs there is a lower percentage of lime, and a 

 higher percentage of potash and soda, than in the corresponding ash of 

 the ruminants ; there is a somewhat higher percentage of phosphoric 

 acid in the ash of the pigs and of the oxen than in that of the sheep ; 

 and there is a higher percentage of sulphuric acid (and somewhat of 

 chlorine also) in the ash of the pigs than in that of the other animals. 



A table showing the quantities of total ash, and of each individual 

 mineral constituent, in each of the ten animals analysed was given. 

 Not much stress was laid on the amounts in the particular animals 



