Fæces

Fæces, the solid excrements, the matters which an animal ejects from the lower end of the intestinal canal, and in greater part consisting of those portions of food which, on passing through the alimentary canal, have been rejected as comparatively worthless in the office of nutrition. In the higher animals the fæces generally contain about three-fourths of their weight of water, the remaining one-fourth consisting in greater part of organic remains; in the case of the ox, sheep, and other herbivorous animals, of undigested woody fibre. See DIGESTION, MANURE.