Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/462

448 respiration, going principally to the maintenance of the animal temperature. Whatever basis in fact this view may have, it is pretty well established that the substances belonging to the latter class of foods are especially favorable to the production of fat, when taken into the system. This fat may exist ready formed in the food, as it is furnished abundantly by both the animal and vegetable kingdoms; or, as is held by many physiologists, it may be formed in the system by the chemical transformation of starch and sugar. Numerous experiments have been made on geese, ducks, pigs, bees, etc., which go to prove that these animals accumulate much more fat than can be accounted for by the quantity present in the food. M. Flourens had the bears in the Jardin des Plantes fed exclusively on bread, and they became excessively fat. Bees confined to a diet of purified sugar continue to produce wax, which strictly belongs to the group of fats. But, whatever its source, the excessive use of non-nitrogenous food, conjoined with inactivity, frequently leads to the deposit of an inordinate amount of oleaginous matter. This fact is illustrated by numerous instances both among the lower animals and among men. At Strasbourg, the geese are fattened by shutting them up in darkened coops within a heated room, and stuffing them constantly with food. The high temperature lessens the escape of heat, and thus favors the process. Here all the conditions for insuring obesity are resorted to—viz., external heat, obscurity, inactivity, and the cramming of the animals with fattening food. A still greater refinement for pandering to the appetite is resorted to by the Italians who relish the fat of the ortolan. To procure this in perfection the natural habits of the bird were watched, and, it having been found that it only takes food at the rising of the sun, they cheat the birds by producing an artificial sunrise. To effect this, the ortolans are placed in a dark, warm chamber which has but one aperture in the wall. Food being scattered over the floor, a lantern is placed at a certain hour in the opening, when the birds, misled by the dim light, at once commence feeding. The meal finished, the lantern is withdrawn, and more food scattered about, when the ortolans sleep. Two or three hours having elapsed, and digestion being completed, the lantern is again made to throw its light into the apartment. The rising sun recalls the birds to the habit of again feeding; and they again sleep with returning darkness. This process is repeated several times in the twenty-four hours, and in a very short time the ortolan becomes literally a ball of fat, which, strung on a wick, is said to make an excellent lamp.

It is known that farinaceous and vegetable foods are fattening, and saccharine matters are especially so. The instance of laborers in Italy, who get fat during the grape and fig season, has been frequently quoted. In sugar-growing countries, the negroes and cattle employed on the plantations grow remarkably stout while the cane is being gathered and the sugar extracted. During this harvest the saccharine