372 
GOOD AND BAD POINTS OF CATTLE, AND THE FORMATION OF FAT AND MUSCLE. 
cause inherently acquired. Therefore the only 
method to ensure those qualities which are so es¬ 
sential to the welfare of the farmer, is to com¬ 
mence primogenitively with the best and most ap¬ 
proved principles that have hitherto been found to 
ensure a healthy and profitable stock. 
I shall now speak of bone, as being the frame¬ 
work on which all the materials of the body are 
built. It should, when examined in the living an¬ 
imal, have the appearance of being fine and small 
in structure. It then augurs a good quality and 
being readily disposed to fatten, although it some¬ 
times betrays too great a delicacy of constitution. 
A bone may be small from a consolidation of its 
structural parts, yet be capable of sustaining more 
weight, superincumbently, than bone of a larger 
size, and whose size depends only on the cellular 
expansion, and not on a cylindrical consolidation. 
A large bone maintains a coarse-bred animal, a 
dull feeder, with a torpid vascular action, that only 
tardily irrigates the frame with the living stream. 
Such animals have a greater disposition to lay 
on more muscular than fatty substance. 
Having concluded my observations on the ex¬ 
ternal structure, relative to the propensity animals 
have of making fat, I shall now offer a few opin¬ 
ions on the arrangement of the internal organs for 
that purpose. 
. The lungs should be large, but not occupying 
the chest too much posteriorly; the chest capa¬ 
cious and deep anteriorly; these being the organs 
for preparing the arterial blood that nourishes every 
part. 
I have also remarked from inspection after 
death of hundreds of animals, that the roots of the 
lungs do not diminish in size so much as that por¬ 
tion which is in contact with the midriff in the 
fattening animal: lungs over-large are not more 
productive of fat than those which are of a moder¬ 
ate size. My solution of this fact is, that if the 
lungs occupy too much of the chest in the posteri¬ 
or part, there is a limitation to the expansion of 
the rumen or first stomach, and the animal does 
not enjoy so much lengthened quietude in rumina¬ 
tion, a circumstance very essential to the fattening 
beast. This substantiates what I have before 
stated. The chest can not be too deep nor yet too 
broad in its anterior external conformation ; there¬ 
fore, instead of attributing the full, spreading, wide- 
ribbed chest, posteriorly, as instrumental to the 
lungs, the space for the expansion of the stomach 
must not be overlooked, a large digestive appara¬ 
tus being required for ail large herbivorous animals. 
The heart is an important organ in the animal 
frame. It is rarely found over-large in the fat an¬ 
imal. It is the forcing-pump by which the whole 
of the body is irrigated through the arterial tubes. 
If symmetrical organization pervades throughout 
the animal, the chances are that the vascular ac¬ 
tion will harmonize over every part, and the de- 
osite of fat will equalize over the whole of the 
ody. On the contrary, an animal with dispro¬ 
portionate parts will have a greater disposition to 
lay on muscle or fat on those parts respectively 
that have the greatest share of vascular action. 
I am now proud to state some indisputable 
facts. I have many times examined animals by 
mediate auscultation, with capacious chests ante¬ 
riorly, and the lungs duly inflating them. Pre¬ 
vious to their being stall-fed, they have, when 
slaughtered, lungs small posteriorly. It is also 
certain that if an animal dies well, the lungs will 
be found disproportionate to what they must have 
been in the living animal. 
I do not agree with the generally-received opin¬ 
ion, nor with Dr. Lyon Playfair, that the lungs 
must be of necessity small when the animal first 
begins to fatten; but, as the fattening process goes 
on, the internal cavity of the chest becomes small¬ 
er, the action of the heart weaker, and the lungs 
diminish in size in a regular gradation, from vari¬ 
ous causes; first, from limited expansion ; second¬ 
ly, from absorption, and by pressure of the sur¬ 
rounding parts; and, lastly, from quietude never 
allowing their due inflation, which the act of de¬ 
pasturation affords. 
The liver is also found small. This I consider 
to be from absorption and internal pressure of the 
surrounding organs. The liver has also a dimin¬ 
ished supply of intestinal and mesenteric blood, 
from the appetite not being so vigorous, and less 
food being eaten as the animal grows to maturity. 
I have known many animals die from accident, 
that, on inspection after death, have had large 
lungs and livers. They were in lean condition, 
but had every good quality for fattening; and I 
have no doubt would have made prime fat beasts, 
and whose lungs and livers probably would have 
been smaller when slaughtered. 
I do think that Dr. Lyon Playfair is wrong in 
the opinion, that small lungs and livers are the 
best organs for the assimilation of food and fat. I 
think that the reason why animals become speed¬ 
ily fat in proportion as they approach maturity, is 
from the arterial action being slow, and the venous 
circulation impeded from the pressure of the ac¬ 
cumulating fat. The arterial exhalents deposite 
more than the venous circulation can return, or 
their absorbents take up. Thus the harmony is 
broken. It is a fact well-known, that very little 
blood of the venous kind can be taken from the 
fat animal. From what I have stated, taken col¬ 
lectively and in conjunction with the primeval ex¬ 
ternal conformation of the animal, may be deducted 
those determinations which tend to either the for¬ 
mation of fat or muscle. 
Before concluding these remarks, I beg to offer 
an opinion respecting small lungs, as stated by Dr. 
Lyon Playfair, (at a meeting of the Council of the 
Royal Agricultural Society,) that they are more 
favorable to the formation of fat. Dr. P. says, 
horses have large lungs. I well know, and not 
speculatively, that horses, if fed on meal and pota¬ 
toes, or turneps, quickly and rapidly make fat. In 
fact, this is the compost that horse-dealers use to 
puff up the farmers’ cattle, so as to give them a 
glossy and plump look previous to sale, and the 
being put to work in this state oftentimes causes 
their death. On opening them, I have seen them 
loaded with fat. 
Now this is not in accordance with Dr. Play¬ 
fair’s views. My firm conviction is, that animaxs 
with small lungs in their growing state will in 
proportion suffer in their external form. 
