1008 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXXI, No. 11 
than 1:4.0. By referring to Table III it will be noted that the 
average ratio between protein and moisture in the flesh from fat 
cattle is 1: 3.5. 
The fat content of the flesh from the extremely emaciated cattle 
is very low, the percentages ranging from 0.21 to 1.13 per cent, the 
average being 0.45 per cent. Only one sample contains more than 
1 per cent of fat. These results are to be compared with 2.71 per 
cent fat in the flesh from the fat cattle (Table III). It is to be 
remembered that these data represent analyses of the lean meat 
which had been trimmed as free from fat as practicable. 
Urea was estimated in only five carcasses from extremely emaciated 
animals. The results obtained indicate considerable variation in 
the urea content of the flesh from this class of animal. If, on the 
basis of results reported by Hoagland and Mansfield (<?), we take the 
normal urea content of healthy muscle to be from 0.015 to 0.018 per 
cent, it is evident from Table V that three of the carcasses contained 
distinctly subnormal amounts of urea, whereas two contained 
quantities somewhat above the normal. The low results suggest 
subnormal metabolic activity; the higher results a slight retention 
of urea. In general, however, the idea that even extreme emaciation 
in cattle is characterized by any appreciable retention of urea is not 
supported by these results. 
Although it was to have been expected that the glycogen reserve 
of extremely emaciated animals would be small, the complete absence 
of glycogen and dextrose from the flesh of any living animal is scarcely 
in harmony with accepted views. Yet dextrose was found in but 
two of the eight samples of emaciated flesh examined for this constit¬ 
uent, and glycogen in neither of two samples. In view of the 
nature of these results it should be pointed out that they do not 
necessarily indicate that the flesh was free from carbohydrates at 
the time of slaughter, for post-mortem destruction of carbohydrates 
might have occurred. In the case of dextrose, also, one must reckon 
with the possibility that in the reduction with Fehling’s solution 
the reduced copper oxide might have been held in solution by the 
substances that do not occur in appreciable quantities in normal 
meat. These possibilities, of course, require further investigation 
before any far-reaching conclusions as to the carbohydrate content 
of badly emaciated flesh can be drawn. 
COMPOSITION OF FLESH FROM VERY THIN CATTLE 
The quarters of beef that were used in these tests were of very 
poor quality, and the meat was suitable only for canning or for the 
manufacture of sausage. 
The moisture content of the lean meat from the very thin cattle 
ranges from 76.81 to 80.49 per cent, the average being 78.84 per cent. 
Six of the twelve samples contain moisture in excess of 79 per cent. 
These figures are to be compared with an average moisture content 
of 80.09 per cent in the flesh from the extremely emaciated cattle, 
and 74.20 per cent in that from the fat cattle. 
The percentage of ash in the flesh from the very thin cattle ranges 
from 0.93 to 1.10, the average being 1.03 per cent. The average 
ash content of the lean meat from the extremely emaciated cattle is 
0.99 per cent, and that from the fat cattle 1.07 per cent. 
