The Appetite Stimulating and Growth Promoting Property of Liver

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Abstract
The effect of several meat supplements upon growth and appetite was studied with rats. In the first experiment fresh pork liver, when fed as a 0.5 gm. daily supplement to a purified diet, increased growth and food consumption as compared to the controls receiving only the basal diet. When food consumption was controlled by use of the paired-feeding method, the rats receiving the liver supplement did not grow significantly faster than the controls. Liver meal, when fed in amounts equivalent to the fresh liver, increased the growth rates of the rats receiving it to a lesser degree than the fresh liver. Beef muscle meal, although more appetizing than the liver meal, when fed as a supplement to the basal diet did not increase food consumption. This result, in view of the similar appetizing properties of the two products when mixed as parts of the diet, is evidence that the palatability of a food itself is not a measure of its ability to stimulate the appetite for other foods with which it is not mixed. In the second experiment the appetizing properties of fresh pork liver, beef liver and calf liver and the effect upon growth of fresh beef liver when food intake was controlled, were studied. The three kinds of liver were found to increase food consumption and growth to a similar extent. The increased growth, however, is entirely the result of appetite stimulation as shown by the equal growth of controls and those receiving the beef liver when food intake was equalized. Male rats show a decidedly greater growth response to fresh liver supplements than do females. This is due in part to a greater consumption of food by the males and also to the fact that they utilized the greater food intake much more efficiently than the females. These experiments confirm the conclusion of Palmer and Kennedy ('30) and suggest a different interpretation of the growth resulting than from a so-called ‘growth’ factor. The factor should be referred to solely as an appetite factor.