542 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
rats fed on gelatine give the same results as the livers of those 
animals when no food at all is given to them: and the same is true 
when they are fed on fat. 
The amyloid substance found in the tissue of the liver is met with 
in greatest abundance about six hours after a full meal, and from 
this time, if the animals are not fed, it diminishes gradually, and after 
some days of abstinence has wholly disappeared. This disappearance 
of it during abstinence is not retarded by keeping the animals at an 
elevated temperature, nor accelerated by the reverse. 
It is a fact worthy of observation, that the liver in carnivorous 
animals is much larger than in vegetable feeders, and also that the 
larger the liver is the less is the per centage of the amyloid substance 
contained in it, the animals of course being fed on their ordinary 
food, in health, and killed during digestion. Thus in cats the liver 
on an average weighs the y-yth part of the weight of the animal’s 
body, while in rabbits that organ does not generally exceed from the 
-^th to the 3 *yth part of the weight of the animal, while the cat’s 
liver yields on an average 15 grains per cent, of amyloid substance, 
and the comparatively small rabbit’s liver 3*7 per cent. 
From a considerable number of observations it may be stated in 
general terms that the livers of healthy cats fed exclusively on meat 
are nearly double the weight of the livers of rabbits, the animals 
being of the same size and killed at the time of full digestion. But 
the livers of the meat-eaters are not nearly so rich in amyloid sub¬ 
stance, so that even allowing for the much greater bulk, the liver of 
a large well fed cat will not yield more than two-thirds as much of 
this material as the liver of a healthy rabbit fed on carrots, bread, 
and parsley. 
It is not necessary that saccharine or amylaceous substances 
should be present in the food to ensure the formation of amyloid 
substance by the liver: strictly carnivorous animals seem to form 
it even more readily from meat than from vegetable food if the latter 
can be introduced. Cats are sometimes found to be very fond of 
asparagus, yet if fed on this vegetable the liver gets small and forms 
but little amyloid substance. Two young cats of the same age, size, 
colour, and sex, were fed, one on meat, the other on asparagus, for 
eight days; they were then killed, the liver of that fed on meat 
weighed 1230 grs. and yielded 17 grains of amyloid substance ; while 
the liver of the other weighed but 630 grs. and gave but 3 grs. of 
amyloid substance. In short, in the coure of a few days the liver of 
one was found to weigh little more than half as much as that of the 
cat fed on the diet which it is natural to presume was best fitted for 
its nourishment, although less rich in saccharine materials. On the 
other hand, in rabbits fed for some days on boiled eggs, meat and 
butter, the amyloid substance had diminished in quantity as much 
as if they had not been fed at all. 
