On the relation between the constiutents of the food and the systems of animals.

  • Thomson, Robert Dundas.
Date:
[1846]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the relation between the constiutents of the food and the systems of animals. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    G The data from which this Table was constructed will be found at p. 65 of “Report,” or p. 57 of “Experimental Researches on the Food of Animals.” The ultimate com- position of the grass and dung was determined, and the amount of the elements in each calculated as in the Table. The dung subtracted from the food gives the third column, indicating the matter taken up into the circulation of the animal. The food in this case was grass (Lolium perenne, or rye grass). If we now calculate the amount of food which was destined for nutrition by the following formulae, we find that it amounts only to 1*56 lbs. Albuminous matters con- tain about 53 percent, of carbon, 7 of hydrogen, 16 nitrogen, and 24 oxygen: hence to obtain the carbon of the nutritive matter in the above Table, we have = 0-828 lb.carbon; 1 O •898 x 7 for the hydrogen —:---- — -109 lb. hydrogen; for the oxygen -1--9* 4 = 0-373 lb. oxygen. By multiplying the nitrogen by 6-25 we obtain the total amount of nutritive matter very nearly; or, as represented in a tabular form,— Table III. Nutritive. Calorifiant. Carbon 0-828 5-972 Hydrogen 0-109 0-881 N itrogen . 0-250 • • Oxygen . 0-373 6-247 1-560 13-100 A true system of dieting would, therefore, require such tables for each condition of animals, in order that a compa- rison may be instituted between the wants of the system and term the expression calorif ant or lieat producing, so as to give a wider range, extending through the whole system to the function of the unazotized food, than the more local term of respiratory would appear to imply. According to this view, all food is destined for repairing the waste of the system, and for the production of animal heat.