AZOTISED AND NON-AZOTISED FOOD. 677 
In the use of the term azotised or non-azotised, as indicating the 
elements of nutrition and respiration, I propose we keep in view 
their real signification, because, on reference to Mr. Read's table, I 
find he has placed wheat and barley among the non-azotised sub¬ 
stances, a chemical error that is too obvious to require any 
discussion. 
From a perusal of the entire paper, we glean the results of 
Mr. Read’s experiments on the blood of the horse, ox, sheep and 
dog, extending over a considerable number of years ; such results 
being comprehended in the following sentence, which I give ver¬ 
batim, to avoid the chance of misstatement. “ An animal is raised 
to the highest pitch of muscular development, as the result of being 
fed on an abundant supply of azotised food; if he be bled, the clot 
is found in excess. Reverse the diet to non-azotised food, the 
muscular development is soon lost, and adipose deposit takes its 
place. If blood be now taken, the serum has the balance in its 
favour.” 
Such, he asserts, are the results of his observations, and on the 
faith of a scientific man we accept them as correct, the more so as 
they contain nothing physiologically new or striking. That in an 
animal fed on azotised compounds there should exist an extreme 
development of muscular tissue, and in connexion, of course, a 
relative increase in the fibrin of the blood, is an admitted axiom; 
and that consequent on an excess of fibrin there should be a re¬ 
lative decrease of serum, is a position that does not require much 
reasoning to invalidate, inasmuch as the blood can only occupy a 
certain space in the animal machine; and therefore if one portion 
be in excess, another mnst proportionately decrease. On the other 
hand, that an animal fed on carbonaceous or non-azotised food 
should possess an excessive development of adipose tissue, and a 
diminution of muscular structure in connexion with a loss of fibrin, 
and, therefore, an excess of serum, is a conclusion equally obvious as 
reasonable. Thus the experiments in themselves only go to prove 
what no one ever doubted ; but far different are the inferences he 
has deduced from them, viz. that “ azotised food goes to the for¬ 
mation of clot, and the non-azotised to the formation of serum.” 
The first position, that azotised food produces fibrin, we, of course, 
admit—in fact, it has never been disputed ; but to the second, “ that 
non-azotised food produces serum, we offer a most unqualified 
dissent, as being chemically and physically anomalous. The only 
argument Mr. Read advances in support of his assertion is the fact, 
that serum exists in excess in fat animals, viz. in animals fed on 
non-nitrogenised matter; but this isolated point explains nothing; 
it is simply a physical fact, and all physical facts, as Mr. Mayhew 
justly observed in The Veterinarian a short time back, “ are cf 
VOL. XXII. 4 x 
