journal of jaiamst 
Vol. XXXI Washington, D. C., December 1 , 1925 No. 11 
A CHEMICAL STUDY OF THE FLESH OF EMACIATED 
CATTLE 1 
By Ralph Hoagland, Biochemist, and Wilmer C. Powicf, Associate Biochemist, 
Biochemic Division, Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of 
Agriculture 
WORK OF OTHER INVESTIGATORS 
Emaciation in cattle, in the absence of recognizable disease, may 
be regarded as due to lack of feed, to malnutrition, or to a combina¬ 
tion of these factors. So far as this condition is caused by lack of 
feed, the work of Trowbridge, Moulton, and Haigh (13) 2 is of inter¬ 
est. In their experiments seven thrifty, fat, yearling steers, as 
nearly uniform as it was practicable to obtain them, were used. One 
was slaughtered as a check at the beginning of the test. The others 
were fed a standard ration throughout the experiment in such quan¬ 
tities that two of them remained at approximately constant weight, 
two gained, and the other two lost approximately one-half pound 
each a day. The “ maintenance 77 animals were slaughtered at the 
end of 6 and 12 months, respectively, the “ submaintenance ” animals 
at the end of 6 and 11 months, respectively,' one of the li supermain¬ 
tenance ” steers at the end of 12 months, and the other discarded 
after 16 months. Of the steers receiving the submaintenance ration, 
the one slaughtered at the end of 6 months was in very poor condi¬ 
tion and the other, slaughtered at the end of 11 months, was so 
extremely emaciated that it could scarcely have survived another 
month. In Table I are shown the apparent percentage changes in 
weight of the various parts and organs of the experimental animals, 
as calculated from the days found in the report. 
It seems desirable to call particular attention to the data from 
steers Nos. 591 and 592, which were fed the submaintenance rations. 
The most noticeable thing is the relatively large decrease in the 
weights of the liver, pancreas, spleen, and thymus of each steer. 
The carcass weight of each steer also decreased very considerably, 
particularly that of steer No. 592, which was fed 11 months. The 
blood, kidneys, and intestines of these steers also decreased materially 
in weight, but the heart lost only slightly. On the other hand, the 
lungs of the submaintenance steers gamed, slightly in weight, and the 
brain and spinal cord made rather large gains. 
The effect of the submaintenance ration on the deposits of fat in 
the carcasses of the two steers was pronounced. Steer No. 591 lost 
more than two-thirds and steer No. 592 more than 95 per cent of 
its adipose tissue during the feeding periods of 6 and 11 months, 
respectively. The fat content of the skeleton of steer No. 591 in¬ 
creased materially during the feeding period, but steer No. 592 lost 
1 Received for publication Apr. 15,1925; issued January, 1926. 
2 Reference is made by number (italic) to “Literature cited,” p. 1013. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. XXXI, No. 11 
Washington, D. C. Dec. 1, 1925 
Key No. A-1G3 
76649—26f-1 
( 1001 ) 
UERARt 
CEREAL INVESTIGATIONS. 
