An experiment was carried out to study growth from birth to maturity in Dutch Landrace pigs based on complete anatomical dissection. The assessment of a detailed description of the compositional changes during growth was the primary objective of this study. In order to examine whether growth patterns would be influenced by feeding level and sex, six treatment groups were formed, being the combinations of the three sexes (entire males, castrated males and females) and two feeding levels (ad libitum vs a restricted level).The literature was comprehensively reviewed with regard to relative growth of the main components and their constituent parts. Since the principles by which the changes in the body occur and the laws to which the processes of growth obey originate from a general and basic concept, the studies carried out in other farm animals were discussed as well.The experiment was set up as a cross-sectional design in which 7 dissection stages were involved. From dissection stage 1 (at an age of 10-12 weeks and about 25 kg live weight) onwards animals wore slaughtered at 6 week intervals up to dissection stage V, followed by an interval of 14 weeks up to dissection stage VI, while the last dissection (stage VII) was carried out at or near maturity. Littermates were allotted to the treatment groups and they were assigned at random beforehand to the different dissection stages to avoid if possible that they should be slaughtered at the same stage. Later on dissection stage 0, involving new-born animals of different weights and of both sexes, was added for completion of a total view over the whole trajectory. The experiment was carried out in 4 replicates that partly ran alongside each other. In principle each dissection stage comprised 8 animals per treatment group. A number of animals had to be withdrawn from the experiment because of leg weakness or various other reasons. Ultimately 283 animals were dissected.The difference in feeding level was introduced at the actual start of the experiment at dissection ...