222 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [September 17, 1870. 
very strong alkaline base, and then again into a 
neutral substance solely by losing or taking up water, 
and without the aid of acids when neutralization 
takes place. A substance possessing such remark¬ 
able characters must surely be of some importance 
for the processes taking place in the force-producing 
apparatus. 
However, there can be no doubt that, in some 
part, these substances are given off by the system; but 
I believe it is going too far to infer, from their presence 
in urine, that they have not taken part in the pro¬ 
cesses going on in the muscles. The organic alkalies, 
to which class creatinin belongs, are compounds of a 
peculiar and very stable kind : and every one would 
hold it to be inadmissible that quinine should be re¬ 
garded as without influence in the process of the 
body, simply because it was present in the urine. 
Inosinic acid is, according to the most recent ob¬ 
servations of Seekamp, a constant constituent of ox- 
flesh and probably of all flesh. Tins is also the 
case with hypoxantliin. 
The imcrystallizable nitrogenous constituents of 
muscular flesh, which quantitatively preponderate, 
are almost unknown as regards their chemical nature; 
among those which are non-nitrogenous there is one 
substance readily susceptible of conversion into lactic 
acid, perhaps sugar or inosite, which is present in 
larger amount in the muscles of the heart. 
From what has already been said, it follows that 
myosin or syntonin, albumen tissues, nerve substance 
and phosphates do not alone make up muscle, but 
that the other combustible substances, so remark¬ 
able in their chemical nature, must be regarded as 
equally essential constituents. All together take 
part in the processes of the working muscle, and 
they must be considered as conditions of those pro¬ 
cesses. 
There is scarcely an inference, much less a fact, 
that requires no further foundation ; and if the 
formed muscle constituents be regarded as the parts 
of the machine, the other mobile constituents of the 
muscle must serve as the working material. 
From this point of vieAV, I believe we obtain a 
wider conception of the processes of nutrition, which, 
up to the present, are known only in the most super¬ 
ficial manner; while the difference between these 
processes in carnivorous and herbivorous animals 
becomes clearer. 
Plants produce the albuminates which the herbi¬ 
vorous animal works up into muscular flesh; while 
carnivorous animals live upon the flesh of the 
herbivora; the organism of the carnivorous animal 
is not incapable of producing albuminates from 
plants, but, as regards its maintenance and develop¬ 
ment, it is not adapted for the working up of plant 
albuminates into flesh. 
The organism of the herbivorous animal possesses, 
in virtue of its peculiar arrangement, the capability 
of working up its fodder and converting it into part 
of its body. 
The carnivorous animal is wholly destitute of this 
capacity; its body is not adapted for working up 
vegetable food, as it is presented naturally. 
It is impossible to nourish a carnivorous animal 
with peas, corn or grass; the animal does not eat 
these materials, nor can it become used to them; 
its masticatory apparatus is adapted for tearing and 
devouring, not for chewing; the meat food the ani¬ 
mal is supplied with requires no chewing in order to 
become assimilable. 
By the art of man it is possible to make up for one 
of these deficiencies, but not for all of them, though 
some lands of vegetable food may be made service¬ 
able for carnivorous animals, as, for instance, by 
converting com into meal; thus, domesticated car¬ 
nivorous animals may be nourished with bread or 
meal in the form of porridge, dumplings, etc., with 
or without the addition of fat. 
The nutrition of carnivora with such prepared 
vegetable food is always imperfect; the animals con¬ 
sume a large quantity, but their digestive apparatus 
is not suited for dealing with the large quantity that 
would be requisite for satisfying the animals’ wants 
within a given time. 
The conversion of plant-albuminates into flesh, 
into the apparatus by which an animal produces its 
power and heat, and the digestion of starch, subjects 
its body to working exercise which it is spared when 
feeding on its usual diet. A greater part of the total 
of the animal’s internal force is expended in the 
working up of these materials; it loses its wildness, 
and approximates in character to an herbivorous 
animal. Therefore a carnivorous animal is scarcely 
suitable as a subject for experiments intended for 
the accurate determination of nutrition processes. 
On the other hand, the working organs of the 
herbivora, their chewing apparatus and digestive or¬ 
gans, are not only adapted for the subdivision, but 
also for receiving 
large 
masses of vegetable fodder 
in our specially flesli-producing domestic animals 
nearly the whole of the available force in the body is 
expended upon this internal work. Besides the 
carrying and motion of their bodies, these animals 
do no external work; whatever external work they 
are compelled to do is lost for their internal work of 
flesh-production. 
Comparing flesh with albuminates the difference 
between them is immediately evident. Fresh lean 
muscular flesh (beef) contains :— 
Fat and Lactic Acid of Flesh . 1T8‘ 
Syntonin, Albumen of Flesh . . 18-00 
Tissue, Vessels and Nerves . . P50 
Combustible Soluble Material 
(extractive).2'64 
Soluble Salts.0"6G 
Insoluble Phosphates . . . . 0T4 
Water. 
The plant-albuminates which serve in 
of an herbivorous animal for the production of its 
flesh, are chemically identical with the syntonin and 
albumen of flesh; the tissues and vessels differ far 
more in their composition from albuminates, and most 
of all the combustible soluble constituents of muscle. 
Hence it is evident that while the conversion of 
plant-albuminates into flesh-albuminates requires the 
least expenditure of internal work, the production of 
the soluble constituents of muscle requires the great¬ 
est amount of internal work, and since this is con¬ 
nected with the consumption of material, the animals 
require for the maintenance or increase of their bod} r - 
weiglit a larger amount of albuminates. 
In the living organism the laws that obtain in na- 
24T2 
75-88 
the body 
ture generally are also in full force, and thus the 
character of the fodder has the greatest influence 
upon the external working capabilities of the animal. 
In appreciating and applying these conditions, art 
is as usual in advance of science, certainly without 
being able to afford any explanation of the facts 
they are familiar with, for this is not the province of 
art. 
