496 ME. J. B. LAWES AND BE. J. H. GILBEET OX THE CO:SIPOSITIOX OE 
such experiments furnish us with certain general results which seiwe as guides to farther 
investigations*.” _ • j ^ 
The statistical method itself, may, however, be very variously carried on . ma} 
souo-ht to determine the several separate factors coincidently upon one and the same 
animal, placed under given conditions. Or, they may be investigated, either one by 
one, or coincidently, upon a large number of animals, so as to exclude, as far as possi e. 
the influence of special circumstances, or of indmdual pecuharities. e ai e oun it 
necessary to have recourse to each of these modes of operation. . j ■ , 
Our more immediate branch of the subject on the present occaaon^that ot 
Composition— obviously constitutes but an item in a general uiquiiw into^ tec emica 
statistics of animal nutrition. Such an inquiry, looking at it from an agncultm-al point 
of view, we have considered as involving the following distinct objects of research 
1st. The amount of food, or its several constituents, consumed m relation to a giun 
imiqlit of animal imtliin a given time. 
2nd. The relation of the gross increase in live-ioeight, to the amount of food, oi i > 
constituents, consumed. x' • 
3rd. The comparative development of the different organs, or ^parts, of fattening 
animals their final ultimate and proximate composition the probable compo- 
sition of their gross increase of live-weight, during the feeding process. 
4th. The composition of the solid and liquid excrements— th^t is, the manure— lu 
relation to that of the food consumed. 
5th. The loss or exqienditure of constituents, by respiration, and } t le cu aiieom 
exhalations—that is, in the mere sustenance of the living meat and manui-e-ma viiig 
mstciiino 
The general plan of experimenting adopted may be briefly described as follows . 
Some hundreds of animals, Oxen, Sheep, and Pigs, were supplied, for many nee > 
consecutively, with given quantities of food of known composition. The "yS'y 
the animals themselves were also taken, both at the beginning an at le ™ “ 
experiments. The data were thus provided for ascertaining the amounts o tood, or o 
certain of its constituents, which were consumed in relation to a gimi wetg n V ' 
withm a gimn time, or which were required to yield a given amount o ’ 
in lire-weigU. Most of the results relating to these first two branc les o • 
inquiry, have been published in detail elsewlieref ; we shall have to addi ce o 
condensed summary of them, when we come to apply the more special results 
'’' Trasfertat the relatione, and the tenimioy of development, of the different parU of 
me system, the weights of the organs, and parts-also of several hundred aniina.s 
• Csveiidisli Society’s translation of Lhimaks's Physiological Otemistry. vol. i. p. 11. 
t .Jonnial of the Boyal Agi-icnltui-al Society of England. ,ol. x. part 1 ; vol. xii. part 2 ; vo . xnn pn. , 
vol. xiv. part 2 ; vol. x,i. part 1. Eeport of the British Association for the Advancement 
1852 ; ibid, for 1854. 
