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contain are ready for deposition in the soil. To some extent this 

 is accomplished by the absence of temptation until the fruit is ripe. 

 The raids of birds and insects, of snails, and of little boys, upon 

 the early strawberries and cherries, are prevented by the absence of 

 sweetness and by the untempting greenness of the fruit. It is 

 always the best of the bunch that is thus attacked. But, in the 

 case of many other fruits a longer sojourn upon the parent stem is 

 required; until, in fact, the fruit is ready to drop to the ground 

 almost by its own weight. This prolonged stay is in some cases 

 secured, as in apples and pears, by the protection of a cork-like 

 rind, in nuts by a hard shell, in other fruits by an evil-tasting 

 substance outside the fruit, but in many others the intrusion of 

 mould fungus and other agents of decomposition is prevented by a 

 layer of antiseptic material. 



The essential oils contained in the rind of many fruits are all 

 inimical to the tiny micro-organisms of decay, and these widely 

 distributed, nay, almost constantly present, agents of destruction 

 can only obtain an entrance to fruit in which some abrasion has 

 been caused by accident, or along channels left open by imperfect 

 growth. A pear often begins to rot in the centre, along the line of 

 the junction of the dissepiments of the ovary, and other fruits often 

 betray similar tracks for the entrance of the germs of decay. 



But it is from the animal kingdom that we can draw the 

 largest number of examples of storage. 



Commencing with the entrance of food into the mouth, we find 

 that in the salivary glands, and especially in the parotids, there is 

 already stored up in their cells a plentiful supply of amylo-lytic 

 ferment, destined to effect the metamorphosis of starch into sugar. 



Similar preparations for a coming meal are shov/n in all the 

 digestive glands. The gastric follicles are found full of cells before 

 food and empty afterwards. The liver is more constant in its 

 functions, which are also more varied than those of other glands. 

 It has, however, a distinct magazine, the gall-bladder, for the 

 storage of its secretion. 



After its entrance into the blood, a considerable portion of the 

 food is stored up ready for use v^hen required. Fatty matter in 

 adipose tissue, and starchy matter in the form of glycogen, is stored 

 up both in the liver and in the muscles, and the automatic 

 mechanism by which this is drav/n upon as it is needed is very 

 beautiful, though it need not now be described. 



There is also in all probability a storage of nitrogen during or 

 preliminary to exercise. 



Dr. Parkes and others have shown that the elimination of 

 nitrogen by the kidneys is lessened during exercise. When a period 

 of exercise is compared, after an interval, with one of rest (the diet 

 being without nitrogen, or with uniform nitrogen), the elimination of 

 nitrogen by the kidneys is decidedly not increased, and may be 

 lessened, in the exercise period. As we all know well, also, with 



I 



