422 
REPORT —1854. 
fattening capacities of certain of the predominant non-nitrogenous constitu¬ 
ents of our current vegetable foods; namely, as indicated by the title of our 
Paper, of Starch and Sugar , which enter so largely into the composition of 
such descriptions of food. 
Starch undoubtedly constitutes by far the largest proportion of the digest¬ 
ible non-nitrogeuous matter of tin* complex vegetable substances, such is the 
cereal grains, potatoes, &c., used as human food ; and it abounds also largely 
in some articles of diet of the lower animals. SugatffOti thBtrthWMMi 
although existing to a much smaller extent than Starch in the naturally com¬ 
bined vegetable diet of Man, yet in one of its forms more especially, it con¬ 
stitutes an important item in his manufactured vegetable food— and in 
another, is a product iu the course of transformation of Starch itself, not only 
in some of our methods of preparing starchy matters for the purposesol foo-i, 
but also in the process of its assimilation by the animal economy. Sugar, 
moreover, occurs largely in the roots and bulbs which at certain period* ol 
the year replace the more starchy vegetable products consumed by tla 
animals of the farm at other seasons. And, it has frequently been utjp 
that it would be a great boon to the agricultural interest were a consider¬ 
able portion of the starchy grains used as cattle food, converted by then'® 
iug process into a peculiar sugar previous to its being employed as food of 
stock. And again, those interested in the growth of cane-sugar have «> n ? 
desired to obtain the introduction of the lower qualities of that article a. 
free, for feeding purposes. In many points of view therefore, both scan i 
and economical, it seemed desirable to put to the test of actual esperunw 
the comparative respiratory and feeding capacities of Starch and ' 
lrom the related chemical composition and characters of the subs _ 
coming under these heads, have hitherto, on theoretical grounds alone, 
considered as cquivalcn t. ( ^ 
llie method adopted to this end was—profiting by the experience ol P 
ceding experiments—to apportion to the animals under conl P a f®“ v i, 0D |(| 
jn severa J cases, such a fixed amount of highly nitrogenous food M 
leave only the requirement for mw-nitrogenous constituents m 8 jn 
which, either in the form of Starch, of Sugar, or both, was then aHoj _ 
any quantity the animals chose to eat them. In another case, . 
n0 ??’ ! i e 8 ! arch y> and tJ| e saccharine foods were each aUowed at* . 
nf *i la - e resu ^ # °f the latter arrangement, a judgement C0U T , amo un‘ 
ot the sufhciency of the fixed apportionment in the other cases. 8 
and composition of the respective foods consumed, and the weight® 
aniina s at stated periods, form the data for our conclusions. of . 
1 he animals selected for experiment were pigs ; for, owing to tne M ic 
tionally small amount of necessarily effete substance, such asvtoot %«ct 
their appropriate food as compared with that of tlie grass and 
animals, the amount of the dry substance of the food taken repretf^ 
more nearly in their ease the sum of that in the increase and the L h>> 1 
expenditure than in that of the latter. And owing to this circus ive j 
SJ2! C0 ®Pwat>vely rapid fattening tendency of these animafc ^ 
nronorhmi __ , ., . ■■ 
nlnvpH r r ~\, vv “7 ul l,HJ a, T substance of the food is, * either i fl 
ployed functionally, that is m say, is eliminated from the bod}, re . 
the exhtdatfons by the lungs and Vkin or in the solid and 
ments, only about 1^ per cent, of the whole serving for the me 
substance of the body" Though 2^15 in our former 1 , 
