No. 23.] LET: 
As has been shown by the German experimenters, the, increase in 
live weight may arise in various ways —such as absorption of water 
in the tissues, a weight not retained well; such as the retention of 
undigested material from day to day, etc. Hence the data upon which 
our tables must be studied is in part as below. 
1st. A certain minimum supply of albuminoid is necessary to pre- 
vent starvation of the animal, while an increase of the supply above 
this quantity causes a slight gain of flesh for a short time, until finally 
exactly as much nitrogen is excreted in the excrement and milk as is 
taken in the food. 
2d. Where water is supplied much of it may be laid up in the tissues 
and the live weight of the animal increased. 
3d. According to the observations of Henneberg, in Weende, on 
oxen, When the amount of water was increased 22.4 per cent, the in- 
crease of the protein consumption, 7. e, the quantity of albuminoid 
matter daily destroyed in the vital processes, and appearing in the 
urine as urea, averaged 5.8 per cent, an amount equal to one-third, or 
perhaps even one-half of the albuminoid, which otherwise might have 
been deposited in the body. 
4th. The influence of the preccding food extends from two to four 
days from the change in the feeding, yet we may consider it doubtful 
whether the influence of the preceding food in the case of ruminants 
may not extend over a much longer period. 
dth. The effect of the addition of -carbo-hydrates is to decrease the 
protein consumption, and thus to cause the albuminoid of the food to 
go further toward the laying on of flesh. 
6th. The albuminoid of the ration which enters into the formation 
of structure in the body becomes quite stable, and a gain of flesh 
caused in this way may continue for a comparatively long time. That 
is to say, speaking comparatively, that while an increase in weight | 
gained by the water laid up in the tissue of the animals is easily lost, 
the increase in weight gained by the feeding of protein and carbo-hy- 
drates is lost less readily ; the increase of weight produced by the add- 
ing of fat to the ration is lost with yet more difficulty. 
7th. The daily weighings‘of an animal, or the apparent increase or 
decrease of live weight, does not indicate the value of the change, as 
the variation may come about through the greater or less amount of 
water absorbed within the tissues, or the variation in the amount of 
undigested food. We hence must allow in our computations for quite 
a wide variation between the daily weights as coming within the errors 
which are necessitated by this method. 
If we place the total water consumed daily in our trial in one column 
and the albuminoid consumed in another we have : 
Water Albuminoid Nutritive 
PERIOD, consumed. consumed. ratio. 
| Ae 267.42 lbs. 1.20 lbs. 1:16 
oe SERS a i 268 .28 lbs. 1000 08: 1:7.4 
I enter rie as ee es 03.8 228.43 lbs. 2.87 lbs. 1:4.3 
hg ce cet es see's 208.23 lbs. 1.01 lbs, 1:10 
ou gO RRA tien eA 147.68 lbs. .62 lbs. 1:12 
MG ty ek ete ok vo be 186.33 lbs. .67 lbs. aS EL 
Me foes cece te ste ot 230.52 lbs. 1.25 lbs. 1:10 
2 CO A 
