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EXHIBITING IN POUNDS AND OUNCES THE AMOUNT OF MILK PRODUCED BY
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 10
DAYS.

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES

ON

THE FOOD OF ANIMALS,

AND THE

FATTENING OF CATTLE.

WITH REMARKS ON

THE FOOD OF MAN.

BASED UPON EXPERIMENTS UNDERTAKEN BY ORDER OF
THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT.

BY

ROBERT DUNDAS THOMSON, M. D.

LECTURER ON PRACTICAL CHEMISTRY, UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW.

FROM THE LAST LONDON EDITION.

NEW YORK:

O. M. SAXTON AND COMPANY,

AGRICULTURAL BOOK PUBLISHERS,

No. 140 Fulton Street.

1S5G.

T37

TO

DR. THOMAS THOMSON

AND

BARON IIEBIG,

TO WHOM THE AUTHOR OWES HIS ACQUAINTANCE
WITH THE SCIENCE OF CHEMISTRY,

Sl)t0 (Hontnbutton

TOWARDS THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SUBJECT OF THK

GROWTH OF ANIMALS

IS

AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

•

PREFACE.

The present Work is based on an extensive series of
experiments which were made at the instance of the Gov-
ernment. The original object of that inquiry was to de-
termine the relative influence of barley and malt in feed-
ing cattle ; but as the opportunity seemed a favorable one
for investigating some scientific problems of great impor-
tance to physiology, and of extreme value in the physical
management of man and animals, advantage was taken
of it, by permission, to extend the experiments so as to in-
clude these objects.

It is well known to those who have been in the habit of
late years of following the researches which have been
undertaken to elucidate the nature of the growth of ani-
mals, that it is now generally agreed that the muscular
part of animals is derived from the fibrinous or nitroge-
nous ingredients of the food, while the source of animal
fat has been disputed. The present experiments seem to
demonstrate that the fat of animals cannot be produced
from the oil of the food, but must be evolved from the ca-
lorifient, or heat-forming portion of the aliment, essential-
ly assisted by its nitrogenous materials. By following out
this principle, the author has been enabled to detect an
important relation subsisting between the nutritive and ca-
lorifient portion of the food, upon the determination of
which, for the various conditions of animals, he considers
the laws of animal dieting depend. He has endeavored

8 PREFACE.

to apply this law to various articles of human food ; and
he trusts that the basis has been laid for future researches,
which may be directed to administer to the health and com-
fort of mankind, and of domesticated animals. In conduct-
ing the experiments upon cattle, the author found not only
his habitual acquaintance with animals, but also his med-
ical knowledge in continual requisition in consequence of
the tendency of the varied conditions of the animal sys-
tem, from the sudden and frequent changes of diet, to
induce symptoms of disease. These were carefully watch-
ed, and overcome by such precautions as clearly follow
from a due consideration of the principles announced in
this work. It was on this account, and to enable the ag-
riculturist to appreciate the advantage which he would
derive from physiological and chemical knowledge, rather
than to give anatomical instruction to the professional man,
that the introductory chapters were written. In a work
professing to be the result of entirely original experiments,
and where such a mass of figures exist, errors must una-
voidably have been overlooked, even although great care
has been taken to diminish their number. The author,
however, trusts that none will be detected which can ma-
terially interfere with the principles deduced from the re.
searches.

CONTENTS,

CHAPTER I.

Introduction. — Different Explanations of Digestion. — The Im-
portance of Researches to discover its true Nature. — Sim-
plicity of Living, and not the Savage Life, conducive to
Health Page 1

CHAPTER II.

Hunger and Thirst are Laws of Nature. — Anecdote. — Mastica-
tion or Chewing necessary as a Preparation for Digestion.
— Importance of the fine Division of Food for the Production
of Milk in Cows. — Experiment illustrative of this Position. —
Alcohol not necessary in Human and Animal Diet. — Anec-
dote of a Foreigner. — Definition of Digestion . . 17

CHAPTER III.

Human Organs of Digestion. — Description and Figure. — Di-
gestion a Solution in the Stomach, but how produced is un-
known.— Proofs of the Absence of Free Hydrochloric Acid
in the Stomach. — Argument from the Composition of the
Food. — Intoxication produced by Oysters. — Anecdotes. — Di-
gestive Organs in Animals chewing the Cud — Description
and Figure. — Detection of the Food in the Blood. — Enor-
mous Draughts of Water taken by Cows. — Explanation of
the Action of Purgatives.— Conversion of Blood into Chyle.
— Parallelism between Milk, Flour, and Blood . .25

10 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COWS.

Description of Brown and White Cow. — Influence of Symme-
try upon the Amount of Milk. — The Health of an Animal de-
pends on the proper Relation of its Organs. — Difference of
Constitution of Animals depends on the Nervous System. —
Fat Animals often to be considered as in a State of Dis-
ease ■ . Page 45

CHAPTER V.

INFLUENCE OF GRASS WHEN USED AS DIET.

Tables of Milk and Butter produced by Grass during Fourteen
Days. — Composition of the Milk. — Amount of Food consum-
ed.— Of the Source of the Butter in the Grass. — Amount of
Wax in the Food. — Composition of Butter. — Mode of pre-
serving Butter fresh for any length of Time. — Improbability
of Wax being converted into Butter. — On the Nature of
Grass and Hay as Food. — Analysis of Hay. — Grass loses
Nutritive Matter when converted into Hay in this Country. —
Table of Fall of Rain. — Process of Artificial Haymaking
suggested. — Analysis of Stem and Seeds of Rye Grass. —
Importance of making Hay before Grass begins to seed 54

CHAPTER VI.

ON BARLEY AND MALT DIET.

Barley and Malt, when not crushed, although steeped in Hot
Water, are imperfectly digested by Cows. — Too large a
Quantity of Grain diminishes the Amount of Milk. — Barley
produces a greater Quantity of Milk and Butter than Malt. —
Difference in the ultimate Composition of Barley and Malt. —
Difference in the Amount of Nitrogen in Barley and Malt. —
Difference in the Saline Constituents of Barley and Malt. —
Effect of the Prooess of Malting . . . .79

CONTENTS. 1 1

CHAPTER VII.

EFFECT OF MOLASSES, LINSEED, AND BEANS, IN THE PRODUCTION
OF MILK AND BUTTER.

Molasses gives less Milk and Butter than a Diet containing more
Nitrogen. — Linseed gave less Butter than Bean Meal, al-
though containing more Oil, probably in consequence of the
Constituents of Beans being in the natural Proportion to re-
store the Waste of the Animal System . . Page 114

CHAPTER VIII.

Quantity of Milk produced by different Kinds of Food. — Effect
of Grass in producing Milk. — Influence of Variety of Food
on Milk and on Man. — Economical Dishes for the Poor. —
Effect of Barley and Malt on Milk. — Effect of Molasses,
Linseed, and Beans on the Production of Milk. — Influence of
Quantity of Grain in the Production of Milk. — Rate at which
Food is changed into Milk. — Relative Influence of different
kinds of Food in the Production of Butter . . 125

CHAPTER IX.

Muscle of the Body supplied by the Fibrin of the Food. — Fi-
brin supplies heat to the Body. — Additional or Calorifient
Food also required. — Amount of Nutritive and Calorifient
Food consumed by a Cow per Day. — The true Laws of Di-
eting.— Amount of Nutritive Matter in various Kinds of
Vegetable Food. — Arrow-root improper for Infant Food,
but useful in Diseases. — The largest Quantity of Milk pro-
duced by Food containing the greatest Amount of Nitrogen.
— Grass an Exception to this Rule. — Explanation of this
Fact. — New Forms of Bread. — Oatmeal Bread. — Barley
Bread. — Indian Corn Bread. — Peas Bread. — Mode of baking.
- — Difference between Fermented and Unfermented Bread. —
Unfermented Bread recommended .... 143

12 CONTENTS.

APPENDIX.

Table I. Relations of the Food to the Products of

Two Cows .... Page 166

Table II. Amount of Oil and Wax in the Food, and of

the Butter, in each Cow . . . 197

Table III. Amount of Oil and Wax in the Food, and of

the Butter, in both Cows . . . 169

Table IV. Ratios of Food, Milk, and Butter . . 170
Table V. Amount of Wax and Oil in different Kinds of

Food, and in Dung .... 171

Table VI. Comparison between the Wax of the Food

and the Butter, and the Wax in Dung . . 172

RESEARCHES

ON

THE FOOD OF ANIMALS,

&C. &C.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION. — DIFFERENT EXPLANATIONS OF DIGESTION. IMPORTANCE

OF RESEARCHES TO DISCOVER ITS TRUE NATURE. SIMPLICITY OF LIV-
ING, AND NOT THE SAVAGE LIFE, CONDUCIVE TO HEALTH.

It is a remark no less old than true, That we are
often less acquainted with the nature of facts of every-
day occurrence, than with those of a rarer description.
This may proceed from one of two causes ; either from
the phenomena constantly under our notice being neg-
lected, in consequence of our familiarity with them, or
from the complexity of their nature, and the intricate
purposes which they ultimately subserve. Some phy-
siologists, who have endeavored to explain the nature
of the process of digestion, would ascribe our ignorance
of that important function to the former of these causes ;
since they refer the preparation of the food in the stomach
for the purpose of nourishing the body to the presence
in that organ of an acid, which, according to them, sim-
ply dissolves the food, and enables it to enter as a con-
stituent of the circulating fluids of the animal system.
The acid which effects this important object is the hy-

11 INTRODUCTION.

drochloric acid ; which they consider to have been satis-
factorily proved to be present during the period when
food exists in the stomach, and they conceive that they
can imitate the process of animal digestion in glass, or
other vessels out of the body, simply by exposing ani-
mal and vegetable food to the influence of dilute acids.
Another class of individuals, who have studied the in-
teresting changes which the food undergoes in the
stomach and intestines, conceive that we are still unac-
quainted with the true nature of this process, and are
inclined to the opinion that the reason why we are not
sufficiently conversant with the phenomena of digestion,
depends more on their intricacy and obscurity than upon
a deficiency of research and observation ; and that while
we possess some facts which seem to indicate the di-
rection in which we are to search for a solution of the
difficulties of the subject, we are still at a great distance
from the elucidation of the precise manner in which
animals digest their food.

There cannot be a doubt that if we understood the
nature of the process by which the food which we
swallow is converted into living flesh, important results
would follow in reference to the preservation of the
health of animals, and the treatment of diseases. If we
were properly acquainted with every transformation
through which the constituents of the food pass after it
has been masticated, until it is finally removed from the
system, it is clear that, in cases where the stomach is
unable to perform its accustomed functions, the assist-
ance of art might be called in to minister to digestion.
Even in the present state of our knowledge, civilized
nations cook their food, or, in other words, endeavor to
imitate the primary stage of digestion, while the savage

DIGESTION. 15

in his wild, untutored state, being in a condition akin
to that of the beasts of the forest, scarcely stands in
need of the assistance of art, and devours his prey with
less of enjoyment than of necessity.

It has been a favorite speculation with some philoso-
phers, that as beasts thrive best in the forest, so man is
most healthy in the savage state ; that when accustomed
to brave the severity of the winter's cold and summer's
heat, to contend with the snow and the thunder storm
without the protection of clothing, or pampering food,
he is armed, like the Spartan of old, with a shield
against the disease and early death so prevalent among
the members of refined societies ; that the catalogue of
maladies existing among a primitive people is exceed-
ingly limited, and that it augments in volume precisely
in proportion to the encroachments of civilization, and
to the departure from those simple laws by which na-
ture, in her unsophisticated state, is uniformly guided.
So far has this view been carried by some advocates,
that it was the opinion of Plato, that after certain medi-
cines were introduced by Podalirius and Machaon at
the siege of Troy, different diseases, which these medi-
cines produced, became prevalent. It can scarcely be
denied, that while these opinions are founded in truth,
they have been greatly exaggerated, and made to tell in
the wrong direction. It is quite true that simplicity in
diet is better fitted to perpetuate health than stimulating
and unnatural food ; but it is not necessary that, in or-
der to acquire health, man should return to the actual
condition of the savage ; nor is it incumbent that, al-
though our domestic animals are seen to thrive well in
their primitive forests, they should be cast loose under
literally the same circumstances. In other words, it

16 DIGESTION.

does not follow, because savage man and animals are
healthy, that civilized man and his attendant animals
should be diseased. A little reflection will show, that
a greater amount of knowledge is required to manage
animals which are subjected to artificial restraints than
in their original condition ; for while man in a social
state undergoes more mental and physical fatigue than
in a state of mere nature, so his attendant animals being
placed under certain restrictions, foreign as it were to
their primitive condition, it is necessary for those who
direct their attention to the management of the physical
nature of both man and animals, to possess such an ac-
quaintance with their construction and requirements, as
to be able to lay down regulations for retaining them in
a healthy and natural condition of body, and to prevent
cattle, more especially, from acquiring that unwhole-
some fat condition which, from want of due attention
to the nature of the animal's system, has assumed al-
most the aspect of a permanent fallacy.

To render the doctrines to be laid down in the sub-
sequent part of this work more intelligible, it will be
proper to describe briefly the organs of digestion in
man and cattle, and to notice the opinions entertained
respecting the nature of digestion. In accomplishing
this, it will be necessary to distinguish between what is
known and what is assumed.

HUNGER AND THIRST. 17

CHAPTER II

HUNGER AND THIRST ARE LAWS OF NATURE.— ANECDOTE. — MASTICATION
OR CHEWING NECESSARY AS A PREPARATION FOR DIGESTION. IMPOR-
TANCE OF THE FINE DIVISION OF FOOD FOR THE PRODUCTION OF MILK

IN COWS. EXPERIMENT ILLUSTRATIVE OF THIS POSITION. ALCOHOL

NOT NECESSARY IN HUMAN AND ANIMAL DIET. ANECDOTE OF A FOR-
EIGNER. DEFINITION OF DIGESTION.

Hunger and thirst are the preliminary steps to di-
gestion ; they constitute a law implanted in the animal
economy for the purpose of inducing the living being
to take such nourishment as is required to sustain that
waste of the system which animated nature is contin-
ually undergoing. If the dictates of the sensation of
hunger and thirst are rationally obeyed, satisfaction and
healthy digestion are the result ; but if, on the contrary,
these important sensations are neglected, weakness and
disease must necessarily ensue. Appetite, or, in its
more advanced stage, hunger, teaches animals to seek
for solid food, and thirst suggests the propriety of ren-
dering the solid mass more pulpy and dilute by the
employment of drink. Experience and reason, both
in man and brutes, must in some measure direct the
selection of the proper objects to be employed for these
purposes. I was some years ago consulted by a wor-
thy individual with regard to the propriety of fasting as
a religious observance. I told him that the sensation
of hunger and thirst constituted a most important law
in the animal economy, destined by the Creator for the

9*

18 MASTICATION,

most beneficent purposes ; that it ought to be obeyed
as a matter of duty, and that if infringed, some preju-
dicial result would necessarily ensue ; because it is no
argument in favor of any such experiment upon human
life that existence does not terminate upon its adoption,
or that the symptoms of some frightful disease are not
instantly ushered in. The seeds of future mischief
may be sown by one experiment, and may only lie dor-
mant until a second or succeeding infringement shall
cause them to spring forth into living activity. In the
course of the extensive series of experiments upon
cows afterwards to be detailed, it was found that, when
they were not supplied with sufficient food during one
day the product of milk was a day or two in reaching
its former average ; thus demonstrating that the animal
had been weakened by the abstinence, inasmuch as it
took a longer period to reach its ordinary condition than
was required to reduce it. The milk, in such an ex-
periment, corresponds with the muscle and fatty por-
tions of the body of animals which do not supply milk ;
hence abstinence in all animals must be followed by a
diminution of the weight of the body. It has been
well remarked by Liebig, that "in the process of star-
vation it is not only the fat which disappears, but also
by degrees all such of the solids as are capable of be-
ing dissolved. In the wasted bodies of those who have
suffered starvation, the muscles are shrunk, and un-
naturally soft, and have lost their contractility : all these
parts of the body which were capable of entering into
the state of motion have served to protect the remain-
der of the frame from the destructive influence of the
atmosphere." (Liebig, p. 26.) There is no difference
in this respect between one set of animals and another.

OR CHEWING. 19

Civilized and savage men, wild and domestic animals,
must all be classed under the same category.

In the human species a morsel of food is grasped by
the front teeth of both jaws, which are each supplied
with sixteen teeth, making thirty-two in all. In those
animals which chew the cud, as they have only one
row of teeth the food is less firmly grasped by the jaws,
and there is, therefore, a greater necessity that it should
be of a soft and pliable nature. By the assistance of
the lips, jaws, tongue, and auxiliary muscles, the food
is conveyed into the cavity of the mouth, and by the
aid of the tongue and lateral motion of the mouth it is
placed between the opposing jaws, where it is masti-
cated or ground to a proper consistence. But the ac-
tion of the jaws in grinding the morsel introduced be-
tween them at the same time elicits the compressing
power of the muscles of the cheek upon the parotid
gland, which is situated in man in front of the ear, and
expels its secreted fluid, the saliva, into the mouth, to
assist in comminuting the nutritive matter. Besides
this mechanical action, there is, however, a nervous
sympathy called into operation. The masticated mat-
ter acts upon the tongue and adjacent parts, inducing a
sympathy with the glands placed under the tongue, and
causes them to pour out their copious contents. The
object of mastication or chewing is, therefore, to re-
duce the food to such a consistence as shall fit it for its
reception and proper digestion in the stomach. This
is well illustrated in the instance of animals which are
not supplied with teeth.

The common fowl, for example, is destitute of these
grinding apparatus ; but it has a muscular mechanism
termed the gizzard, which powerfully compresses the

20 IMPORTANCE OF

introduced food, and by means of pebbles and stones,
which are a necessary article of food with the class of
animals referred to, an artificial substitute for the teeth
is provided. In graminivorous animals, we shall pre-
sently find that a substitute for the second row of teeth
is provided in the operation of rumination, or chewing
the cud. From attention to these facts, therefore, we
are taught that the preparatory step of digestion con-
sists in the fine division of solid food by means of the
apparatus set apart in the mouth for this purpose, and
its mixture with a certain amount of fluid saliva to ren-
der it more dilute.

The importance of the proper grinding of the food,
and of rendering it as soluble as possible, can be well
appreciated by such individuals as have been the sub-
jects of indigestion, from the eructation of morsels of
food, of gases, and of acid liquors. It is scarcely ne-
cessary to remark, that similar rules are applicable to
the inferior animals, and more particularly in the state
of confinement to which most of them are more or less
subjected when they are made to minister to the wants
of the human species. The following comparative
table exhibits this fact in a sufficiently striking manner.
Two cows were fed on entire barley and malt, steeped
in hot water ; they were then fed on crushed barley and
malt, prepared in the same manner. The influence of
the finer division of the grain in augmenting the product
of milk places the importance of this position beyond
all cavil : —

FINELY-DIVIDED FOOD. 21

BROWN COW. WHITE COW.

Milk in Periods
of 5 Days.

Milk in Periods
of 5 Days.

5 limbs.

1 97}

106 lbs.
94

{ 96
( 95

98
104

< 105
( 110

1091
109}
110

( 97
I 96
( 98

106±
107|
llli

Entire barley and grass, -
Entire malt and grass,

Crushed barley, grass, and hay,
Crushed malt and hay,

An inspection of this table shows, that with the entire
barley the milk diminished during the second five days
of the experiment, while with the crushed barley the
milk had a tendency to increase during each succeeding
period. In all such experiments there are continually
occurring irregularities, of which we have no means of
precisely appreciating the causes. These proceed often
from atmospherical influences, as temperature, and fre-
quently from the condition of the animal. We are,
therefore, taking a legitimate view of an experiment,
when we direct our views to the tendency to improve-
ment or deterioration in the course of the trial, rather
than to the actual numbers obtained. In the preceding
table, the tendency to an increase of product is decidedly
in favor of the finely divided grain. There are some
anomalies, more particularly with reference to the brown
cow, which was rather a fiery animal, and probably
placed in peculiar physical conditions, as will subse-
quently be explained.

The nature of the saliva, which is a fluid of the sim-
plest constitution, as it contains 99 J per cent, of water,
directs our attention to the nature of the fluid to be used

22 SALIVA, AND NOT ALCOHOL,

in quenching thirst. It has become customary in towns
to stimulate the systems of cattle, more especially of
cows, after the fashion of human beings, by the use of
alcoholic fluids, such as pot ale, under the idea of in-
creasing the amount of milk. Now as the stimulating
portion of this pot ale is alcohol, and contains no curd,
or, if so, but an insignificant portion, it is evident that
no increase of the nutritive constituents of the milk is
thereby obtained. It is an idea, too prevalent with
nurses, that fermented liquors increase the quantity of
milk ; but I am sure all intelligent physicians will agree
with me that this view should not be encouraged, either
as improving the quality of the milk, or as benefiting
the infants supported on such food. Even for adults a
similar advice may not be inappropriate. A foreigner,
who had a high opinion of English philosophy, was in-
vited to a party consisting of men of science. After a
plenteous dinner the table was cleared, and the bottles
were placed on the table. Having partaken of two or
three glasses of wine, and being still pressed to drink,
he seriously assured the company that his thirst was
quenched. The philosophers, however, continued to
urge him to follow their example, and drink, even al-
though he were not thirsty ; upon which the foreigner
rang the bell, and insisted on having another course
brought up, declaring, that they ought to eat as much
against reason, as he to drink. The only advantage
gained can merely be by stimulating the system, or in
supplying a bad form of heat-producing food in a liquid
form. There is no evidence that alcohol can supply
any of the constituents of the milk or body. If the
milk augments under its action, a position requiring to
be proved, it must be in regard to the aqueous ingre-

THE TYPE OF HUMAN DRINK. 23

dient, and not by an increase of any of the solid consti-
tuents ; a consequence, therefore, which would be more
satisfactorily acquired by the addition of water to the
milk after it has been drawn from the animal.

The saliva would appear to constitute the type of
what the drink of man and animals should be. The
artificial beverages so much employed by them in a
state of confinement seem to be unnecessary, if not
hurtful. By the use of fluids as nearly allied to the
nature of saliva as possible, we shall, as far as we can
judge, be following the simple rules of nature. The
operation of mastication, or chewing, is a voluntary art ;
but the next step, or that of deglutition, or swallowing,
is of a different character. So soon as the food is suf-
ficiently reduced to a pulpy state, the natural impulse
appears to be to carry it, by the assistance of the
tongue, to the back part of the mouth. This is all the
voluntary exertion required on the part of the individual.
The instant that it touches certain nerves which guard
the throat, they are excited, and cause the muscles to
grasp the morsel and carry it into the gullet, by which
it is conveyed, without any peculiar sensation in the
healthy condition of animals, and without any exercise
of voluntary motion, into the stomach, the primary or-
gan of digestion.

Much ambiguity has occurred in physiological wri-
tings respecting the nature of digestion, perhaps as much
from the absence of a proper definition of the term as
from any other cause. Some writers appear to consider
the disappearance of the masticated food from the stom-
ach as a proof of the completion of the process of diges-
tion, while others view digestion as the formation of a
pulpy mass in that organ. Physiologists generally de-

£4 DEFINITION OF THE TERM DIGESTION.

scribe the pulpy mass in the stomach under the name of
chyme, and that in the smaller intestines as chyle ; but
as these terms are in some measure artificial, and
scarcely admissible in the case of graminivorous ani-
mals, in the subsequent description of what is known
respecting the changes which the food undergoes in the
intestines, these terms will be omitted. By digestion I
understand the conversion of food into blood. A con-
sideration of this subject will lead us to notice the prin-
cipal organs of digestion in man and animals, as well
as the primary steps of digestion in the stomach and
intestines, with the secondary stage of digestion in the
passage of the food to the blood-vessels, and the alter-
ation which it there undergoes.

HUMAN ORGANS OF DIGESTION. 25

CHAPTER III.

HUMAN ORGANS OF DIGESTION. DESCRIPTION AND FIGURE. DIGESTION

A SOLUTION IN THE STOMACH, BUT HOW PRODUCED IS UNKNOWN.

PROOFS OF THE ABSENCE OF FREE HYDROCHLORIC ACID IN THE STOMACH.

ARGUMENT FROM THE COMPOSITION OF THE FOOD. INTOXICATION

PRODUCED BY OYSTERS. ANECDOTES. DIGESTIVE ORGANS IN ANIMALS

CHEWING THE CUD. DESCRIPTION AND FIGURE. DETECTION OF THE

FOOD IN THE BLOOD. ENORMOUS DRAUGHTS OF WATER TAKEN BY

COWS. EXPLANATION OF THE ACTION OF PURGATIVES. CONVERSION

OF BLOOD INTO CHYLE. PARALLELISM BETWEEN MILK, FLOUR, AND

BLOOD.

Human Organs of Digestion. — The organs of pri-
mary digestion in man are all situated in the lower
division of the trunk of the body, usually termed the
abdomen or belly, (Fig. 1.) They consist of the
stomach, which may be viewed as an expansion of the
gullet, or meat-pipe. Its form has been compared to
that of a bagpipe. It lies principally on the left side,
under the edge of the ribs ; but it extends towards the
middle of the body, and more particularly after a meal
its expansion can be detected. The upper border of
the stomach is curved ; the hollow of the curve extend-
ing downwards, and forming what is designated the
small curvature or arch of the stomach. The lower
border of this organ also constitutes an arch, termed the
greater curvature. The passage into the stomach from
the gullet, and the exit-valve or intestinal or lower ex-
tremity of the stomach are thus nearly on a level, so
that this organ may be said to be directed across the

3

26

LARGE AND

body. The lower opening of the stomach (pyloric ori-
fice) is contracted, being supplied with a circular band

Fig. 1.

HUMAN STOMACH AND INTESTINES, (Grant.)

1. (Esophagus, or meat-pipe.

2. Stomach.

3. Small intestines.

4. Termination of the small intestines in the colon.

5. Great arch of the colon.

6. Straight gut, or rectum.

of muscular fibres, which constitutes a kind of valve in
order to prevent food from returning into this organ.
This point forms also the connection with the intestines,
from whence they extend in the form of a long tube,
five or six times the length of the body, and occupy the
lower part of the abdomen. The intestines are usually
divided into the small and large intestines. The former
1 are estimated to be in length twenty-six feet, or from

SMALL INTESTINES. 27

four to live times the length of the body ; and the great
intestines one length of the body, or about six feet.'1 —
{Bell.) But it is rather remarkable that we have no
precise statistical data in reference to the proportion
between the height of the body and the length of the
intestinal canal. In the figure the small intestines oc-
cupy the middle space, and are surrounded on three
sides by the large intestines. The colon, which com-
mences on the right side of the body, passes upwards
and across to the left side, in the form of a great arch ;
then downwards, until it terminates in the rectum, or
straight gut. The upper portion of the small intestines
is termed duodenum, from its being twelve finger-
breadths in length. It crosses over to the right side of
the spine, and descends to the kidney, from which it
crosses over to the left side of the spine. This is the
largest of the small intestines, and it generally contains
digested matter. The next portion of the small viscera,
or two-fifths of what remains, is termed the jejunum,
or empty intestine, because it is generally void of con-
tents. The lower portion of the small intestines is
termed ilium, and resembles the empty intestine. Both
of these are convoluted in a remarkable manner in the
cavity of the belly, and terminate in the large intestines
by a valve, which prevents the return of their contents.
The large intestines, including the colon and rectum,
or straight gut, constitute the lower termination of the
abdominal viscera, and are destined to serve as a store-
house for all that portion of the food which is of no use
to the system, and which is usually known under the
names of dung and excrement. The masticated food
then is received by the gullet into the stomach, and is
further reduced to a finer state of division. The mode

28 SOLUTION OF THE FOOD

in which this division or solution of food is executed
has not yet been satisfactorily ascertained. An acid
certainly makes its appearance in the stomach when
food is present, but whether this acid takes any part in
the digestion or solution is still disputed. During the
digestion of vegetable food in pigs, whose stomachs
bear a close resemblance to those of man, I have al-
ways found a volatile acid present in minute quantities,
which corresponded with the properties of acetic acid ;
but it is the only acid which distils over from the liquor
of the stomach at a temperature of 212°. The filtered
liquid of the stomach, under such circumstances, con-
tains no hydrochloric acid, but an acid which is either
lactic, or corresponds very closely with it.* To ascer-
tain if free hydrochloric acid was present in the fluid
contents of the stomach, after being distilled for some
hours till no more acetic acid came over, the residue
was filtered, and divided into three equal portions.
1. To the first portion a solution of nitrate of silver was
added, until a precipitate ceased to fall ; pure nitric
acid was then added, and the temperature raised to the
boiling point. The precipitate was filtered, washed, and
weighed. 2. The second portion was evaporated to
dryness, and ignited : the residue was dissolved in
water, and precipitated by nitrate of silver, nitric acid
being added, and the solution boiled. 3. The third por-
tion was exactly neutralized with caustic potash, evap-
orated, and ignited : the residue was dissolved in water,
and precipitated by nitrate of silver. The results of
these experiments are indicated in the following table
in grains : —

* Phil. Mag., April, May, 1845. Lancet and Medical Gazette of
same year.

IN THE STOMACH.

29

Experi-
ments.

Weight of Chloride
of silver.

Weight of
Chlorine.

Weight of Hydro-
chloric Acid.

1

2
3

7-81
7-17
7-97

1-95
1-79
1-99

2-00
1-84
2-04

The difference between the first and second experi-
ments indicated the amount of chlorine in union with
ammonia. In the third experiment the potash displaced
the ammonia, and hence the amount of chlorine was
the same in the first and third experiments. I there-
fore infer that no free hydrochloric acid was present.
Hence it appears probable that this acid is produced at
the expense of the sugar or starch of the food, and it
appears doubtful if any considerable quantity of acid is
secreted, as is generally imagined, from the coats of the
stomach. Corvisart tells us, that in a case where there
was an aperture in the stomach the contents of that or-
gan during digestion were neutral ; and I have found
the contents of the stomach of a sheep during digestion
of grass, and several hours after the food had been in-
troduced, without either an acid or alkaline reaction.
A strong argument, however, against the hydrochloric
acid theory of digestion is derived from the circum-
stance of the food containing, in many instances, but
an insignificant quantity of chlorides, a considerable
portion of which is again thrown out with the dung.
Hay made from rye grass, for example, contains often
merely a trace of chlorine, while in barley, and other
kinds of grain, it is often entirely absent. Now as it is
obvious that the hydrochloric acid, if any were present
in the stomach, must be originally derived from the
food, the absence of such a constituent in many kinds
of food renders its disengagement in a free state in the

3*

30 DIFFICULTY OF EXPLAINING

stomach so much the less probable. I regret, there-
fore, to be obliged to infer that the commonly received
view of digestion is scarcely admissible. It is perhaps
safer to conclude, that there is a deficiency of know-
ledge on this important subject ; and that not only do
we require to possess a few facts additional before we
can be said to understand the process, but we want an
entirely new basis on which to found a theory of diges-
tion. It seems highly probable, from my own observa-
tions, that the starch of food is converted into sugar, and
that this again passes into simpler forms, as alcohol,
perhaps, acetic acid, or lactic acid, by a kind of substi-
tution so well explained by the theory of Dumas, and
finally into gaseous forms, as carbonic acid and vapor
of water, or after some such fashion as suggested by
Liebig. The difficulty lies in explaining how the al-
bumen and fibrin become dissolved, and are thus pre-
pared to be taken up in a liquid state by the lacteals.
What has been described as fermenting or digesting
principles, under the names of pepsin, gasterase, &c,
are obviously albumen, &c. modified by the action of
solvents, and have thrown no light hitherto on the na-
ture of the solvent power. The most superficial ob-
server must have noticed that digestion is something
more than a mere chemical action. Does not the fam-
ished man feel refreshed after eating, and does not the
pulse beat quicker when food has been swallowed ?
There is, therefore, a nervous action induced, the na-
ture of which it is only wise to admit we do not as yet
understand. But so remarkable is the influence of
even simple food on the nerves, when abstinence has
been practised for some time, that it may be interesting

THE SOLUTION OF THE FOOD. 31

to quote the following case, in which intoxication was
produced by the stimulus of oysters alone.

.In the well-known mutiny of the Bounty, Capt. Bligh
was set adrift in boats with twenty-five men about the
end of April, in the neighborhood of the Friendly Islands,
and was left to make his way to the coast of New Hol-
land in such a precarious conveyance. At the end of
May they reached that coast after undergoing the great-
est privations, the daily allowance for each man having
been one twenty-fifth of a pound of bread, a quarter of
a pint of water, and occasionally a teaspoonful or two of
rum. Parties went on shore, and returned highly rejoiced
at having found plenty of oysters and fresh water. Soon,
however, " the symptoms of having eaten too much be-
gan to frighten some of us ; but on questioning others
who had taken a more moderate allowance their minds
were a little quieted. The others, however, became
equally alarmed in their turn, dreading that such symp-
toms (which resembled intoxication) would come on,
and that they were all poisoned, so that they regarded
each other with the strongest marks of apprehension,
uncertain what would be the issue of their impru-
dence !" Similar observations have been made under
other circumstances. Dr. Beddoes states that persons
who have been shut up in a coal-work from the falling
in of the sides of a pit, and have had nothing to eat for
four or five days, will be as much intoxicated by a ba-
sin of broth, as an ordinary person by three or four
quarts of strong beer. In descending the Gharra, a
tributary of the Indus, Mr. Atkinson states (Account of
Expedition into Affghanistan in 1839-40, p. 66) that
on two occasions during the passage he witnessed the
intoxicating effects of food. To induce the Punjaubees

RUMINANT ORGANS

to exert themselves a little more, he promised them a
ram, which they consider a great delicacy, for a feast,
their general fare consisting of rice and vegetables made
palatable with spices. The ram was killed, and they
dined most luxuriously, stuffing themselves as if they
were never to eat again. After an hour or two, to his
great surprise and amusement, the expression of their
countenances, their jabbering and gesticulations, showed
clearly that the feast had produced the same effect as
any intoxicating spirit or drug. The second treat was
attended with the same result. The introduction of
food, therefore, into the stomach produces an influence
or sympathy over the whole body which is worthy of
notice, and shows us that we are too much disposed,
perhaps, to localize the physiological actions of the
systems of animals.

Digestive organs in animals ivhich chew the cud. —
(Ruminant animals, fig. 2.) The small and large in-
testines of these animals correspond, in general re-
spects, with those of the human subject. The stomach
is, however, entirely different. Instead of consisting
of one cavity as in men, the stomach of the sheep and
ox is divided into four compartments, which serve to
reduce the food to a finer state, and render it more
pulpy.

The food in these animals is first received into the
paunch, (ventriculus,) which occupies a large space in
the belly on the left side. From this bag it passes into
the second stomach or honeycomb, (reticulum or bon-
net,) from the cell-looking aspect of its interior struc-
ture. There the food is formed into a round ball, and
is thrown by the oesophagus into the mouth, to be again
chewed while the animal is at rest. This is termed

OF DIGESTION.

33

chewing the cud, and is a proof that the food has un-

In the fine

dergone little change in the first stomach.

Fig. 2.

compound stomach of ruminants, (from Cams and Jones.)

1. (Esophagus.

2. The paunch, or first stomach.

3. The honeycomb, or second stomach.

4. The manyplies, or third stomach.

5. The caille or red, or fourth stomach.

6. The commencement of the small intestines.

state of division in which it now is, the food when
swallowed, " in consequence of its stimulating quality
being now altered, finds the two valvular folds at the
lower end of the oesophagus closed and shortened by
contraction, and is directed by the short canal they thus
form into the third, and thence into the fourth cavity of
the stomach," {Grant, p. 41 1,*) which is the true digest-

* Outlines of Comparative Anatomy, by R. E. Grant, M. D., &e.
Part IV. p. 410.

34 CONVERSION OF FOOD INTO

ins stomach, and is the one which is active when the
young are suckling. The anatomy thus far at least of
the ruminant animals is interesting to the cattle feeder,
because it may explain the importance of mixing with
grain a certain amount of chopped hay, in order that
the whole may pass into the first stomach and have all
the benefit of a second mastication ; whereas, if it is
administered at once in a fine state of division similar
to that produced by chewing the cud, it may pass into
the third stomach at once. The number of digesting
operations to which vegetable food is thus subjected
exhibits in a strong point of view the difficulty encoun-
tered by the systems of animals in extracting from this
description of aliment the soluble ingredients fitted for
their support. It is thus we find in man, that vegeta-
ble is longer of digesting than animal food, and that
the American Indians, who live entirely on animals
during a great portion of the year, are under the ne-
cessity of smoking largely the prepared bark of the
willow to delay probably digestion, as the custom of
smoking has been plausibly explained by Liebig. There
is an interesting confirmation of the fact, if any were
needed, of the easier digestibility of animal than of
vegetable food, related in the case of Mr. Spalding,
the improver of the diving-bell in the last century.
He stated that when he had eaten animal food, or drunk
fermented liquors, he consumed the air in the bell
much faster than when he lived upon vegetable food
and drank only water. Many repeated trials had so
convinced him of this, that he constantly abstained
from animal diet while engaged in diving. But as di-
gestion is not confined to the stomach in the view
which we have taken of it, we find that in animals

CHYLE OR WHITE BLOOD. 35

living on vegetable food the intestines are generally
much longer than in animals subsisting on animal food.
In the sheep, for example, they are twenty-eight times
the length of the body, while in animals which feed on
a mixed diet, the intestinal canal, as in man, possesses a
medium extent. The importance of the length of this
tube is at once apparent for the digestion of a diet which
is with difficulty soluble, if we consider that the intesti-
nal canal is believed to form an extensive surface, from
which the digested food is constantly passing away by
the mouths of vessels opening into it, termed lacteals.
These lacteals are considered to form a connection be-
tween the intestines and the bloodvessels, by which the
digested food, under the name of chyle, is transmitted into
the current of the blood. The chyle, which may therefore
be considered as incipient or young blood, contains simi-
lar ingredients to those which we find in the stomach,
viz., fibrin, albumen, sugar, oil, red coloring matter, and
salts. (Prout.) If we examine the blood when the chyle
has been mixed with it, we might expect to find indi-
cations of its presence in that fluid. Accordingly it
has been ascertained that the serum or watery part of
the blood, after partaking of a meal which contains any
fatty matter, is milky, and is not clear as is generally
supposed. This has been ascertained to be the case
in healthy men, and also in the inferior animals. For
example, calves were fed on gruel and milk, and after
various intervals they were slaughtered. The serum
of the blood on examination when the animal was killed
from three to six hours after the meal was found to be
milky, and to leave a greasy stain on filtering paper,
when the amount of milk or fatty matter used was
considerable ; while the serum taken from an animal

36 LARGE DRAUGHTS OF WATER

which had been subjected to starvation for a space of
time varying from twelve to twenty-four hours, present-
ed generally a clear aspect.* Besides the fatty matter
which had been used as food, traces of albuminous
matter were detected in the serum of the blood when
in the milky state ; and from some experiments also
it would appear that sugar, either derived from the
starch, or from the saccharine matter of the food, can
be detected in the blood. These observations, for an
opportunity of making which I am indebted to Dr. A.
Buchanan, seem to be corroborated by the fact stated
by microscopical observers, that particles distinct from
those of the fat can be detected in the chyle.

It has been a subject of discussion with physiolo-
gists, whether the chyle or incipient blood is taken up
in the small intestines alone, or if absorption occurs
also in the course of the large intestines. Upon this
question it appears that no small degree of light may
be thrown by a consideration of some circumstances
in the feeding of cattle, which are sufficiently striking.
As cows are continually feeding during the whole day,
it can rarely happen that the stomach can be in any
other condition than in that of engorgement, and yet the
amount of water which the animals will swallow at a
single draught is certainly more than sufficient to fill the
whole of the cavities of the stomach supposing them to
be empty. The following table will show the quantity
of water swallowed by two cows on different occasions.
The animals were placed on the weighing-machine, and
their weight noted. They were then allowed to satisfy
their thirst, and their weight was again taken.

* Paper by the author, Phil. Mag., April and May, 1845.

TAKEN BY COWS.

37

BROWN COW.

Food

Weight of Cow.

Water
Swallow-
ed.

12 Aug.

19 —
29 —
4 Sept.

Barley, molasses, }
and hay, J

Malt and hay

Ditto -

Barley, linseed, )
and hay, }

Before
Drinking.

After
Drinking.

lbs.

1010

9981
1023^

991

lbs.
1038

1041

10481

1055

lbs.

28

421
25"

63

WHITE COW.

Food.

Weight of Cow.

Water
Swallow-
ed.

12 Aug.

26 —
4 Sept.

13 —

Barley, molasses, )
and hay, $

Malt and hay

Barley, linseed, )
and hay, £

Beans and hay

Before
Drinking.

After
Drinking.

lbs.

1052

1028

1056

1060

lbs.
1106
1051
1104

1087

lbs.
54
•23

48

27

In the fourth experiment with the brown cow, it will
be observed that the animal swallowed at one draught
sixty-three pounds weight of water. As the water was
derived from the Clyde, and contained but a small
amount of inorganic matter, we shall be very near the
truth if we admit that the cow, on this occasion, swal-
lowed six gallons of water without taking a breath.
Now it is obvious that in these trials the water must
have passed through the stomach into the intestines.
On mentioning these facts to Sir Benjamin Brodie, to
whose opinion in such experiments I most willingly de-

4

38 USE OF THE COLON.

fer, he informed me that he had found the water taken
by small animals, when they were killed soon after
swallowing it, to be lodged in the colon or large intes-
tine. A similar observation has been made by Mr.
Coleman, of the Veterinary College, in reference to the
horse. — [Bell.) From which it has been inferred, that
" the aliment is deposited liquid in the right colon ; that
in arriving in the rectum or straight gut, it is deprived
of fluid, and that the lymphatics of the great intestine
are found distended with a limpid fluid. From such
views the idea has been entertained that a very princi-
pal office of the great intestines was to imbibe the fluid
from their contents in proportion to the wants of the
system." — {Bell.) It is not to be inferred, however,
from the fact, that when the dung presents a less con-
sistent aspect, it contains a much larger quantity of
water. In the case of cows fed on grass, when the
dung was thin and liquid, the percentage of solid matter
was 1T27; while when they were feeding to a con-
siderable extent on grain, and when the dung was very
consistent, the amount of solid matter varied from 13
to 14^ per cent., affording evidence certainly of a greater
quantity of water in the first instance than in the sec-
ond, but not so considerable as might be expected from
the external appearance of the substances.

If the view of Bell be correct, and it seems a very
plausible opinion, the colon would appear to act the
same office as the paunch and second stomach of the
camel, dromedary, and llama, in which animals there
are large cells in those portions of the stomach for the
retention of water, which is thus supplied to the sys-
tems of the animals according to the exigencies of their
case. Since the experiments which I have detailed

USE OF THE COLON. 39

appear to warrant the conclusion, that the water swal-
lowed by the cows was conveyed into the colon, it is
obvious that this water, in its passage through the
stomach, must carry with it much soluble matter, es-
pecially of a saline nature, which may be absorbed
through the coats of the great intestine, or thrown out
with the excrementitious matter contained in the gut.
It is in this way I am inclined to account for the con-
siderable quantities of common salt and alkaline phos-
phates which I have met with in repeated analyses of
the dung of cows fed on grass, hay, and grain. The
amount of inorganic matter in cow-dung varies from
10 to 13 per 1000 parts; and in the latter case, the
quantity of soluble salts, consisting of chlorides and
phosphates, averaged as much as 1{ per 1000 parts.
The presence of these salts was quite unequivocal, as
on burning the dung and digesting the residue in water
the common salt was easily obtained in characteristic
cubical crystals by concentration. The fact of the
colon serving as a kind of reservoir for the large quan-
tities of fluid carried into the intestinal canal, may
serve also to explain the mode of action of saline pur-
gatives. It would appear that, when dissolved in large
quantities of water, they are carried at once to the co-
lon, where they act by stimulating the intestine, in-
creasing the peristaltic motion, and thus encouraging a
more intimate mixture of the aqueous and solid con-
tents of the gut, communicating the same liquid condi-
tion of the contents of this intestine to those of the
rectum, which are usually quite free from water, and
thus contributing to their easy evacuation. Liebig has
endeavored to account for the action of saline purga-
tives by the power which they possess of extracting

40 ACTION OF

water from the tissues, in the same way that common
salt extracts water from meat and forms brine. To a
certain extent this explanation is satisfactory ; but it is
obvious it cannot extend to the action of powders, such
as jalap, &c, and accordingly Liebig restricts his view
to saline purgatives. But if, as Sir Charles Bell be-
lieves, there is always a quantity of water in the colon,
we can more readily understand how such vegetable
powders can act, and that their agency would be as-
sisted by the use of diluents which will be carried
down to the rectum and be intermixed with its con-
tents. The erect posture, if this view is correct, will
be the most proper to assume after the administration
of medicine, in order that the abundant draught of fluid
may be carried rapidly by gravity to the lower extrem-
ity of the intestinal canal. This explanation of the
action of purgatives, it will be observed, assimilates
them to clysters, with this difference, that a purgative
may act more or less from the stomach downwards,
while the influence of a clyster is generally restricted
to the rectum and colon. From this view we may also
infer, that, in cases where the bowels obstinately resist
the action of purgatives, and it is considered advisable
to administer a clyster, the action of the latter will be
facilitated by the free use of tepid water introduced by
the mouth. It may be further inferred from this view,
that a preference should be given to saline purgatives
over those of a vegetable nature, since, being soluble,
they are at once carried to the large intestines, their
proper sphere of action ; and, contrary to the frequent
assertion, they are just as natural to the system as
those of a vegetable nature, since all wholesome food
contains saline ingredients. This view is, in some

PURGATIVE MEDICINES. 41

measure, opposed to the employment of medicines in
the state of pills, and would appear to dictate the pro-
priety of administering aperients -in the form of solu-
tion whenever it can be practised with propriety. This
observation it is not intended, however, should be con-
strued into a recommendation of the use of purgatives ;
on the contrary, we believe them to be much too fre-
quently employed, and that a more intimate study of the
process of digestion will convince both medical men and
patients, that the primary object of attention is the na-
ture of the food employed, and the due consideration
of its adaptation to the particular circumstances in
which an individual is placed. The nature of the ac-
tion of purgatives now supported may be stated in a
few words. The colon in a natural state contains wa-
ter ; the rectum contains only dry faeces : a purgative
increases the action of the colon, intermixes the water
and contents more intimately, propels these liquid mat-
ters into the rectum, occasions also a similar action to
that induced in the colon, and finally, enables the
whole contents to pass away with facility. This view
is, in some measure, borne out by the fact of such suc-
culent food as grass, which contains from f to § its
weight of water, acting as an habitual aperient.

Purgatives are usually employed to remove, as the
phrase goes, irritating matter from the intestines. Now,
as the only foreign substance of any consequence, in
addition to the food, thrown into the intestines, is the
bile, it becomes an important object to determine upon
what the physician is acting when he administers a
purgative. The question, Where are the irritating ma-
terials lodged ? demands first a solution. If in the
colon, then why should the whole length of the intes-

4*

42

IDENTITY OF MILK,

tinal canal be subjected to the stimulating action of a
purgative, since the end can be more easily attained by-
throwing a clyster into the large gut? The second
question is, Does the bile cause the irritation ? And,
third, Does not the food occasion the derangement?
So little are we prepared to answer these questions,
that we do not even as yet know the function or desti-
nation of the bile. But there can be little hW'tation
in affirming, that the use of purgatives is carried much
too far in this country, especially mercurials, a class
of the most dangerous poisons. The primary object
of the introduction of food into the stomach and intes-
tinal canal is to produce blood : in order that the latter
may be of a healthy description, it is requisite that the
food should contain the ingredients necessary for the
production of blood, and that these should be in a state
of integrity and health. It is scarcely to be wondered
at that the consumption of putrid food, such as high-
flavored game, and large quantities of decayed cheese,
should be incapable of producing healthy blood ; or
rather, that the blood produced from substances in such
a state of putrefaction should be liable to disease of
the most dangerous and deadly nature. One of the
first considerations, then, in forming an opinion of the
adequacy of food to produce healthy blood, is to com-
pare its constituents with those of the blood. The
true type of all food, as has been well demonstrated
by Dr. Prout, is the milk which nature has provided so
carefully for the use of sucking animals : in it we may
expect to find all the substances requisite for the pro-
duction of healthy blood. The following table affords,
in parallel columns, a view of the ingredients entering
into the composition of milk, wheat flour, and blood.

FLOUR,

AND BLOOD.

43

Milk.

Flour.

Blood.

r Fibrin.

"Fibrin.

Albumen. ,

Albumen.

Curd or Casein. •<

Casein.

Casein.

LGlutin.

Coloring Matter.

Butter.

Oil.

Fat.

Sugar.

Sugar, starch.

Sugar?

Chloride of potassium.

Chloride of sodium.

Phosphate of soda.

>• Ditto.

> Ditto.

Phosphate of lime.

Phosphate of magnesia.

Phosphate of iron.

From this table, therefore, we learn that the curd of
milk is capable of undergoing certain modifications,
which exhibit themselves under four forms in the
blood. The coloring matter, too, of the blood is ab-
sent from the milk ; but the latter contains iron, which
:is connected with the coloring matter of the blood in
some way not yet understood : and it was the opinion
of Chaptal, and of others since his time, that the florid
color of the blood was occasioned by the action of the
oxygen of the atmospheric air upon the iron of the
blood. But the experiments of Dr. Prout, who found
a trace of coloring matter in the chyle, that is, in blood
before it has been exposed to the action of the oxygen
of the atmosphere, would appear to militate against
this plausible view of the cause of the florid color of
the blood ; and yet it is impossible to avoid the suspi-
cion that further inquiry, and a more intimate acquaint-
ance with the process of respiration, will connect, in
some manner or other, the iron which exists in no
other part of animals but the blood with the function
of the oxidation of the systems of animals. But be-
sides the necessity for the presence of the same mate-
vials in the food which exist in the blood, it is requisite

44 MILK AND BLOOD.

that each should bear a certain relation to the whole,
as will be attempted to be pointed out in the subse-
quent part of the work, during the discussion of the
effects of the different kinds of diet employed in the
extensive series of experiments to be detailed. The
previous observations have shown the parallel nature
of milk and blood. To make good milk, therefore, is
obviously producing a similar effect to that of forming
good blood, and consequently contributing to build up
the body of animals in a healthy and substantial man-
ner. Again, as the blood of cows is identical in com-
position with that of the human species, it is obvious
that the diet of the one class of animals must possess
a similar composition to that of the other. It is im-
portant, as a preliminary step, to consider briefly the
nature of the animals upon which the experiments for
determining the influence of different kinds of food as
diet were made.

DESCRIPTION OF COWS. 45

CHAPTER IV.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COWS.

DESCRIPTION OF BROWN AND WHITE COW. INFLUENCE OF SYMMETRY

UPON THE AMOUNT OF MILK. THE HEALTH OF AN ANIMAL DEPENDS

ON THE PROPER RELATION OF ITS ORGANS. DIFFERENCE OF CONSTI-
TUTION OF ANIMALS DEPENDS ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. FAT ANI-
MALS OFTEN TO BE CONSIDERED AS IN A STATE OF DISEASE.

When experiments are made upon a limited scale it
is essential that the principal elements in the investi-
gation should be carefully selected. Greater accuracy
would be undoubtedly attained by experimenting upon
a very large number of animals at the same time, pro-
vided that the execution could be effected with equal
facility ; but when the subsequent tables are examined,
it will be at once evident that the labor, and consequent
liability to error, attendant upon such researches when
made in a more extensive form, would more than coun-
terbalance any objections to a more limited scale of
inquiry. In undertaking this series of experiments it
was requisite to choose cows which should produce
average results. The selection was intrusted to a very
extensive agriculturist, (possessing a large herd of milk
cows,) who was made acquainted with the object in
view ; and, from the results obtained, it appears that
the choice was well made ; and that, so far as the ani-
mals are concerned, there is probably nothing objec-
tionable in the experiments. One of these animals

40 DESCRIPTION OF COWS.

was white or speckled, and the other was brown, and
they answered to the following characters : —

White or speckled Cow. — This was a handsome
cow of the Ayrshire breed, possessing a face of no
great length, but of considerable breadth. The horns
were curved inwards and forwards, and their tips turned
slightly upwards. The neck was covered with patches
of a brown color, and the rest of the body thinly spot-
ted in the same manner. The spine formed a remark-
ably continuous horizontal line, unbroken by any de-
pression. The chest was not characterized by a more
than usual wedge-like form, although when viewed
from behind, in connection with an expanded belly and
short legs, this feature was to a certain extent observa-
ble. She therefore possessed undoubtedly an impor-
tant element in a good milk cow, viz., large intestines
and comparatively small lungs. This cow was five or
six weeks calved, and had seen the bull a fortnight
previous to the commencement of the experiments.
The quantity of milk which she gave when at pasture,
it was stated, was ten quarts, or about 25 lbs. 12 oz.
imperial weight. This amount was never, however,
reached during the whole course of the experiments,
except upon one occasion. This animal was remark-
ably quiet ; her age was between five and six years,
and her weight, a fortnight after her arrival, 994 lbs.

Brown Cow. — This cow was considerably inferior
in size to the preceding, and by no means endowed
with a figure so pleasing to the eye of the connoisseur.
Her horns protruded more. The spine was not straight,
but was characterized by a decided dorsal depression,
a mark of inferiority in an Ayrshire cow. Her color
was brown, varied with a few white patches. Her

INFLUENCE OF SHAPE IN A COW. 47

belly did not protrude to such a degree as that of the
white cow, and her lungs were in consequence larger
in proportion. The quantity of milk which she gave
at pasture is stated to have varied from nine to ten
imperial quarts, a quantity which she much exceeded
immediately after her arrival, but which gradually di-
minished and remained tolerably stationary till the
close of the investigation. This cow had seen the
bull two days before her arrival, but probably without
the requisite effect, as she displayed occasionally con-
siderable irritability, wildness of eye, and other well-
known symptoms. The quantity of milk which she
gave was generally less than that yielded by the white
cow, but the amount of butter was greater. Her
weight, a fortnight after her arrival, was 967^ lbs., and
her age was about five years. She had calved five or
six weeks.

It is not necessary, for the sake of elucidating the
experiments, to discuss the much controverted points
among agriculturists in reference to the form of cow
best calculated for the purposes of the dairy, since
practical judges differ as to the proper characters, and
have too frequently fixed upon anatomical features as
indicative of a good milk cow which are not necessa-
rily so in a physiological point of view. No stronger
proof could be adduced in support of this statement
than the fact that the characters of a good milk cow
of the short-horn breed are in many respects the re-
verse of those exhibited by the Ayrshire cow. The
external symmetry of an animal must, in some meas-
ure, be viewed apart from its capacity to discharge a
physiological function. It would be incorrect to judge
of the capability of a man to undergo fatigue by the

48 INFLUENCE OF THE RESPIRATORY

contour of his countenance, spine, and limbs alone, al-
though their peculiar conformation might afford acces-
sory proofs of power. Recent experiments, in accord-
ance with scientific views, would tend to show that
strength or endurance of fatigue will depend more upon
the relation of one important division of the system to
another, as of the organs of respiration, for example,
to the stature or muscular development, than upon the
general corporeal symmetry. A man of six feet and
upwards may appear well proportioned to the eye, and
yet experiment has shown that an inferior stature af-
fords, on an average, greater muscular power, in con-
sequence of the better ratio subsisting between the
important organs which are necessary to the exercise
of strength. This is at once obvious, if we bear in
mind that the principal source of animal power is res-
piration, or that function by which certain portions of
the digested food are converted into carbonic acid,
acetic acid (?) and water ; including, therefore, not
only the lungs, but also the whole capillary system of
the skin.* A short-winded person, or one whose res-
piratory organs are defective, is at once inferior in the
capacity to undergo fatigue to another whose lungs are
in a state of integrity ; and this is the result, not merely
because the lungs are somewhat diseased, but because,
the exciting cause of all animal motion being depen-
dent on the function of respiration, — that is, the con-
version of carbon and hydrogen in the system into

* These views are strongly supported by the very ingenious expsr--
ments of Mr. Hutchinson, whose researches on respiration constitute %
valuable contribution to physiology. See Journal of Statistical So-
ciety, June, 1844. Trans, of Med. Chirurg. Society of London, May,
1846.

AND NERVOUS SYSTEMS. 49

carbonic acid and water, — it is requisite that the oxy-
gen of the atmosphere should have access to a certain
amount of blood-surface to produce a given effect.
When any obstacle occurs to mar this operation, — for
example, in consequence of disease of a portion of the
lungs, or of the influence of a cause operating upon
the whole constitution, — the inevitable result is a de-
terioration of muscular power. It is unnecessary to
multiply examples in proof of the co-existence of mus-
cular power and capacity of lung, since a broad chest
is generally accepted as an element of strength. The
relation between the muscles, or flesh, and the lungs
being understood, it will be more easy to appreciate
the connection between the intestines and the lungs.
The intestines are the reservoir in which the food is
placed for the purpose of being absorbed into the blood.
The rapidity with which the dissolved or digested mat-
ter is taken up must, it is obvious, depend upon the
rate at which the vessels destined for this purpose act;
these being set in motion by the heart, this again by
the nervous system, and the latter by respiration, there
is discernible a beautiful chain of connection between
the oxygen of the atmosphere and the absorbed food.
If the system described were always in equable move-
ment, if no influences were occasionally present to in-
terfere with its proper equilibrium, animals would be
in the condition of plants, which possess absorbing ap-
paratus, but are destitute of one powerful interfering
agent in the animal economy; this is the brain and
nervous system, upon the condition of which depend
passions and emotions of the mind. It is principally
by the study of this important apparatus that we de-
rive our knowledge of what is peculiarly termed the

50 NATURE OF FATNESS.

constitution of animals. Without this system animals
would be merely chemical machines, and we might
then predicate, in every case, the effects of particular
influences, as one animal would then differ from anoth-
er merely in the extent of its mechanism. The intes-
tinal canal may then be considered as an extensive
absorbing surface, which is retained in equilibrio by a
properly-balanced exhaling surface, the lungs and skin.
If there were no nerves, this equilibrium would spon-
taneously proceed, and every part of the animal sys-
tem would be duly supplied with its proper amount of
support. But to stimulate the nervous system we em-
ploy exciting substances, such as alcohol and spices,
&c, which increase the rapidity of absorption without
a corresponding provision being made for the proper
exhalation of the excess of food thus introduced into
the system. The consequence must be the deposition
of fat, a condition of the system which is ranked in
the human subject as a disease, (Polysarcia adiposa*)
The same result occurs with the inferior animals if we
force more food into their systems than can be in some
degree proportionally exhaled. The deposition of fat
ensues, and when it is carried to the extent too cus-
tomary among agriculturists, it assumes the form of a
disease : when cattle are fed for the purpose of serving
as human food, there ought not to be such a super-
abundance of fatty matter deposited as is usual with
some of the animal monsters designated fat cattle.
When they are properly fed, with a due attention to
allowing them a certain amount of exercise, the fat and

* In the language of Lord Byron, " fat is an oily dropsy." — Reject
ed Addresses, p. 19.

DESCRIPTION OF COWS. 51

lean are deposited in healthy proportions, and the cattle
may be employed without risk as human food. Pas-
sions or mental influences must necessarily produce a
decided effect upon the absorptive action of the intes-
tinal canal, and may cause a diminished amount of nu-
triment to be absorbed : in this case the products of
the animal, such as the milk of the cow, must neces-
sarily be diminished. This remark is to be kept in
view in considering the subsequent experiments. The
cows were very different in reference to their nervous
condition. The white cow was quiet and steady, gen-
erally eating equal portions and producing equable
quantities of milk. The brown cow, on the contrary,
was fitful in her appetite, and of consequence was va-
riable in the amount of products. In proportion to her
weight she consumed a larger amount of food than her
fellow, but always afforded less milk and a greater
amount of butter. The variable action of her organs
is well exhibited in the first series of tables. When at
pasture she had given two pints less than the white
cow, and immediately before the experiments she gave
the same quantity as her fellow. On her arrival in
Glasgow her milk greatly increased ; but it soon be-
gan to diminish, although the same amount of food
was continued. That the change was not produced by
any alteration in the food is obvious from the steadier
result afforded by the white cow, which was also sup-
plied with an equal weight of fodder. The amount of
milk given by the brown cow was as much as 26 lbs.
per day when she was fed with grass, and upon the
same kind of food the quantity declined to 22 lbs. ;
while the milk produced by the white cow was, at
the commencement of the experiment with grass, 23

o2 INFLUENCE OF

lbs., and at the termination of the trial, 21 lbs. ; so
that there was a falling off, in the case of the brown
cow, to the extent of 4 lbs., and with the white cow
only to the amount of 2 lbs. That this result was not
merely owing to a deficiency of water was proved by
experiment, which gave the same amount of water in
the milk of both cows ; but the quantity of butter af-
forded by the brown cow amounted to 11| lbs., while
that of the white cow was 8|- lbs., in fourteen days,
from 1,427 lbs. of grass supplied to each animal
Again, when the animals were fed on steeped entire
barley, the brown cow's milk fell from 22|- lbs. to 17|
lbs., while that of the white cow only declined from
22 lbs. to 19J lbs.; the brown cow falling off to the
extent of 5 lbs., and the white only to the extent of
2| lbs. These facts are sufficient to show that the
two animals were constitutionally different. The oc-
casional wild look of the brown cow, her tendency to
gore those who approached her, her frequent startled
aspect, all indicated a nervous state of excitement ; the
probable cause of which has been already alluded to.
The result of these experiments seems to countenance
the idea, that, although a handsome external figure is
not necessarily an indication of the highest capacity in
a cow to produce milk and butter, yet that it may con-
duce to afford a steady supply of milk, inasmuch as it
appears to indicate a proper relation between the or-
gans.

Color of Cattle. — It has been supposed by some
practical persons that the color of an animal exercised
some influence on the amount of milk produced. The
determination of this point could only be decided by
experiments upon different breeds of cattle ; but it is

COLOR OF CATTLE. 53

probable that color is not an important element in this
inquiry, any further than that the same parents being
good milkers may originate a stock of similar charac-
ter, both in color and in functions, to themselves ; and
hence a particular color co-existing with good milking
capacity would rather be an accidental than a physio-
logical circumstance. The subject is one, however,
open for inquiry, and is alluded to here because it is a
favorite idea with some good practical observers.

In the experiments to be detailed, if is proper to
state that the milk was carefully weighed and also
measured morning and evening; the numbers con-
tained in the series of tables are therefore the exact
results of experiments. The weight of grain may be
taken as representing the exact chemical quantities,
while the amount of hay being only given in quarter
pounds might be received as the practical quantities,
and not as the precise chemical numbers. The dung
was also carefully weighed morning and evening, and
its solid and liquid contents estimated by frequent des-
iccations. The butter was extracted from the whole
of the milk. The morning's milk was allowed to
stand for twenty-four to thirty-six hours, and was then
creamed ; the cream being placed in the churn, to-
gether with the whole of the evening's milk. The
weights and measures used are all Imperial.

5*

54 EFFECT OF GRASS AS FOOD

CHAPTER V.

INFLUENCE OF GRASS WHEN USED AS DIET.

TABLES OF MILK AND BUTTER PRODUCED BY GRASS DURING FOURTEEN

DAYS. COMPOSITION OF THE MILK. AMOUNT OF FOOD CONSUMED.

OF THE SOURCE OF THE BUTTER IN THE GRASS. AMOUNT OF WAX

IN THE FOOD. COMPOSITION OF BUTTER. MODE OF PRESERVING BUT-
TER FRESH FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME. IMPROBABILITY OF WAX BEING

CONVERTED INTO BUTTER. ON THE NATURE OF GRASS AND HAY AS

FOOD. ANALYSIS OF HAY. GRASS LOSES NUTRITIVE MATTER WHEN

CONVERTED INTO HAY IN THIS COUNTRY. TABLE OF FALL OF RAIN.

PROCESS OF ARTIFICIAL HAYMAKING SUGGESTED. ANALYSIS OF STEM

AND SEEDS OF RYE-GRASS. IMPORTANCE OF MAKING HAY BEFORE GRASS

BEGINS TO SEED.

Immediately before the commencement of this ex-
periment, the cattle had been grazing, and were brought
a distance of about forty miles by railway ; a circum-
stance which may account for several irregularities and
anomalies in the immediate subsequent history of the
animals as derivable from the tables : —

EFFECT OF GRASS AS FOOD.

55

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EFFECT OF GRASS AS FOOD.

57

Proximate Analysis of the Experiment. — The com-
position of the grass, consisting almost entirely of rye
grass, (Lolium perenne,) and of the dung, was as fol-
lows : —

Grass.

Dung.

Water -

Sol. Salts - - - )
Silica and Insol. Salts - (
Organic Matter

75-

1-34
23-66

88-33

( 0'40

\ 1-35

9-92

100- j 100-

Hence the solid matter in the food of the brown cow
was 356 lbs., in the dung 147, while in the food of the
white cow there were 356 lbs. of solid matter, and in
the dung 140 lbs., making in all 425 lbs. swallowed by
the two cows.

The composition of the milk of the cows was as fol-
lows : —

Brown.

White.

Spec. Grav.

1029-8

1029-8

Water -

87-19

8735

Butter -

370

Sugar -

435

Casein _'■-•-

416

Sol. Salts -

0-15

0156

Insol. Salts -

044

0-488

From the previous experiments it therefore appears,
that the same quantity of food given to cows nearly of
the same weight produced 5 lbs. less of solid matter
of milk in one cow than in the other ; 100 lbs. of solid
matter of grass producing in the brown cow 17£ lbs.

58 ANALYSIS OF THE EXPERIMENT

of dry milk, and in the white cow only 15| lbs. From
the column, however, in which the weight of the cattle
is represented, it appears that both cows were increas-
ing in weight ; but, as the white cow advanced most
rapidly, it is probable that the difference in the quantity
of solid milk may have been applied to increase the
weight of the white cow. There is another alternative
which is also admissible, viz., that the capacity of the
lungs and respiratory organs of the white cow were
greater than those of the brown cow, since the former
absorbed a greater amount of solid matter from the
grass, as appears from the difference between the grass
and dung, than in the case of the brown cow. These
important differences in the two animals rendered it
impracticable to make comparative experiments upon
them at the same time. The only method which could
afford results of value was, to supply each with the
same kind of food, and thus to obtain data which could
enable a judgment to be formed of the relative nature
of the constitutions of the animals.

The whole series, therefore, consists of two parallel
sets of experiments, the second of which maybe viewed
as a repetition of the first trials, thus serving to control
any liability to error which might readily occur from
the nature of the investigation.

Ultimate Analysis of the Experiment. — The ulti-
mate composition of the grass and dung was found to
be as follows : —

WITH GRASS.

59

Carbon
Hydrogen
Nitrogen -
Oxygen -
Ash - - -
Water

Grass.

Dung.

Fresh.

Dried at 212°.

Fresh.

Dried at 212°.

11-35

T48
0-46

10-39
1-32

75-00

45-41
593
1-84

41-54

5-28

6-40
0-78
0-25
5-20
1-37
86-00

45'74
5-64
1-81

3703

9-78

100

100

100

100

Table exhibiting the Amount in Pounds of Carbon, <SfC.
in the Food and Dung during Fourteen Days.

Brown.

White.

Grass.

Dung.

Consump-
tion.

Grass.

Dung.

Consump-
tion.

Carbon
Hydrogen -
Nitrogen -
Oxygen
Ash - -
Water - -

161f

21

148^

18f

1070|

67

8

9 7
54i

14
902}

94|
13

93i

4?tf i
167}

161|
21

6*
148
18|
I'070|

64
73
'4

2h
52"
13|

860

97f

13*

4

96

5

210|

1426f

1049

377 ;

1426|

1000

426f

From this table we learn that the brown cow con-
sumed daily 6f lbs. of carbon ; this is very nearly equi-
valent to 1 oz. of carbon for every 9J lbs. of live weight,
(the cow weighing 8 cwt. 71 lbs.) The white cow
consumed daily nearly 7 lbs. of carbon, or 1 oz. of car-
bon to 8£ lbs. of live weight ; and the daily consump-
tion of all constituents is represented in the following
table, which affords a view of the mean of the two
cows : —

60 ULTIMATE NATURE OF FOOD.

lbs.

Carbon 6'87

Hydrogen - 0*93

Nitrogen - 0*28

Oxygen 676

Ash ----- 0-33

Water 13*50

28-67

That so much matter should be ejected by animals
is a circumstance liable to excite surprise in one who
examines the physiology of digestion merely in a cur-
sory manner ; but when we recollect that the stomachs
of a ccw are of great capacity, capable of holding seve-
ral gallons of water, and that these vessels, if we may
so speak, require to be filled, in order that a mechanical
excitement may be communicated to their surrounding
coats, we may discover perhaps why a condensed regi-
men, although it might contain sufficient nourishment
to supply the waste of the body, from its insufficiency
of bulk to excite the stomach to secrete the requisite
gastric fluid, might be incompletely digested. Hence
it may be that grain and all farinaceous food are insuffi-
cient for cattle : they require a quantity of hay or straw
in addition, for the purpose, in common language, of
filling up the animal, but possibly to excite the coats
of the stomach to the action of secretion. It is perhaps
a preferable view to consider the hay as containing a
larger amount of caloriflent constituents.

Of the Constituent of the Grass ivhich supplies the
Butter. — It is now upwards of a century since Beccaria
of Bologna broached the idea that animals are composed
of the same substances which they employ as food : —
" En effet si 1'on excepte la partie spirituelle et immor-

THE SOURCE OF THE BUTTER. 61

telle de notre etre, et si nous ne considerons que le
corps, sommes nous composes d'autres substances que
de celles qui nous servent de nourriture. (1742.)" —
Collection Academique, tome x. p. 1 . In more recent
times Dr. Prout has defended the same doctrine, and
has referred us to milk as the type of nourishment.
In this fluid the main solid constituents are oil, fibrin,
and sugar ; these, therefore, or analogous bodies, he
considers should enter into the composition of all whole-
some nutriment. Still more lately a difference of opin-
ion has resulted with reference to the exact part which
starch or sugar plays in the animal economy. Fibrinous
matters, it is generally admitted, undergo little or no
alteration in the system.; but whether it is necessary,
in order to produce fat in an animal, that the food should
contain oil, and that no other form of nutriment can
produce this substance, is a question which has been
very much debated. It has been contended that the
presence of oil, if not essential in the food, is at least
very important in increasing the amount of fat deposit-
ed ; while Liebig holds, that oil may possibly be assi-
milated or converted into butter, but that the same pro-
duct may result from the deoxidation of starch or sugar
in the animal economy. To the agriculturist the settle-
ment of this question is of no small importance, since it
may guide him to the use of various kinds of food for
the fattening of cattle which may otherwise be over-
looked, and may also conduce to the proper prepara
tion of food, a subject which has received less attention
than perhaps it deserves. In the prosecution of the
present series of experiments the prospect of throwing
some light upon this interesting subject has been kept
in view ; and, in general, such experiments as were

6

62 THE SOURCE OF THE

required to afford data for calculating, from the different
kinds of food, the probable origin of the oily matter
secreted by the animals, have been carefully registered.
To solve the question, it is necessary to ascertain the
amount of oil in the food. The oily matter in the
grass was determined by first drying the grass at the
temperature of 212°, to remove water; it was then
digested in successive portions of ether, until this liquid
ceased to remove any matter in solution. The same
experiment was performed with the dung. The first
process, therefore, gave all the oily matter swallowed
by the animal, and the second afforded the oil or wax
which was not taken into the system : 2000 grains of
grass, when dried, became 500 grains. By digestion
in ether, 42'3 grains were taken up of a matter having
a dry waxy consistence, possessing a green color, but
without any of the characters of a fluid oil ; this is
equal to 2'01 per cent. 4284 grains of moist dang
from grass, equivalent to 500 grains of dry dung, af-
forded 13*2 grains of an exactly similar green waxy
matter to that found in the grass, equal to 0*312 per
cent. The largest amount of wax in the dung of the
cattle was obtained while they were feeding on hay ;
1000 grains of dung left, at the temperature of 212°,
157 grains of dry dung, which gave 6 grains of wax,
equivalent to 0*6 per cent, in moist dung, or 3*82 per
cent, in the dry dung. All of these products were
carefully dried for some days at the temperature of
boiling water. From these data, then, we are enabled
to construct the following table :—

FAT OF ANIMALS. 63

lbs.
Amount of wax in food of both cows in fourteen days 57*3
Amount of wax in dung - 6*3

Amount of wax consumed by the cows - 51'0

Amount of dry butter - - - - - -16*7

Excess of wax in the food ----- 34'3

To ascertain whether the whole of the butter is re-
moved from the milk by the usual process of churning,
portions of the same milk were analyzed by the usual
methods, for the sake of comparison. The brown
cow's milk in the present experiment contained 3'46
per cent, of butter, while, by analysis, the amount was
3'7, making a difference of rather less than a quarter
of a pound in 100 pounds of milk. This is so small
that it does not affect the preceding calculation, but
rather tends to show that the determination of such
questions on a large scale is preferable to the usual
analytic methods, since the analysis of milk twice a day
for several months would be such a laborious work as
to render its accomplishment impossible.

It is necessary to explain the circumstance that but-
ter, as obtained by the usual mechanical process, con-
tains foreign matter, consisting of water and curd, or
casein. By analysis, butter was found to have the fol
lowing composition : —

Casein 0*94

Oil 86-27

Water 12*79

The composition of French butter has been stated to
be somewhat different, (Boussingault,) as it has been
found to contain upwards of eighteen per cent, of im-

64 PRESERVATION OF BUTTER.

purity. This difference may be owing to the coldness
of the summer during which the present experiments
were made.

The hardness of the butter was a subject of general
remark, and might render it better fitted for being freed
from the casein than if it had possessed a more fluid
form.

Mode of -preserving Butter fresh. — The cause of the
tainting of fresh butter depends upon the presence of
the small quantity of curd and water as exhibited by the
preceding analysis. To render butter capable of being
kept for any length of time in a fresh condition, that is,
as a pure solid oil, all that is necessary is to boil it in
a pan till the water is removed, which is marked by
the cessation of violent ebullition. By allowing the
liquid oil to stand for a little the curd subsides, and the
oil may then be poured off, or it may be strained through
calico or muslin, into a bottle, and corked up. When
it is to be used it may be gently heated and poured out
of the bottle, or cut out by means of a knife or cheese-
gouge. This is the usual method of preserving butter
in India, (ghee,) and also on the Continent ; and it is
rather remarkable that it is not in general use in this
country. Bottled butter will thus keep for any length
of time, and is the best form of this substance to use
for sauces.

From the preceding table it appears, that the oil
consumed by the cows greatly exceeded the butter,
and the oil contained in the dung, even if the casein
and the water were not subtracted from the butter ; the
total quantity of butter being 19 lbs. 6 oz. The result
of this experiment is in perfect accordance with the
facts observed by Boussingault, who, in similar re-

SOURCE OF ANIMAL FAT. 65

searches upon cattle, found the oil in the food to ex-
ceed that in the dung and milk. The matter extracted
by ether from grass, however, can scarcely be termed
an oil, since it possesses all the characters of a wax ;
that is, a body which contains a smaller amount of oxy-
gen than a fat oil, — certainly less than is contained in
butter. It is therefore difficult to conceive a wax to
obtain more oxygen in the system, and to be converted
into an oil, where all the actions are calculated to re-
move oxygen, and not to supply it : such an occurrence
would be as probable as the addition of oxygen to wood
by throwing it into a furnace. The production of but-
ter from sugar by the action of casein or curd is, on
the contrary, a process with which chemists are now
familiar, and is therefore more readily admissible into
physiological theories than the idea of the formation of
butter from wax, since we are unacquainted with any
analogous example. The connection between sugar,
oil, and wax is exhibited by the following formula : —

Differences.
Carb. Hyd. Oxyg.

4 4 40
4 0 2

In bees we have a well demonstrated example of the
production of wax from sugar, while fat, or the inter-
mediate stage, is probably first produced in the body
of the bee, and is then, by the loss of a small portion
of carbon and oxygen, converted into wax, or to the
lowest state of oxidation existing in the animal system.
The point therefore to which it is necessary to direct
attention is, that we have instances in chemical phy-
siology of substances being produced from the others
preceding i> in the table, but that we are unacquainted

6*

Carb.

Hyd.

Oxyg.

Sugar -

- 48

44

44

Fat -

- 44

40

4

Wax -

- 40

40

2

66 NATURE OF FIBRIN.

with any phenomena of an inverse order ; nor would
such an occurrence be explicable upon the principles
on which the animal system is understood to proceed.
Taking all these circumstances into consideration, it
appears that there are fewer difficulties in the way of
supposing that butter is formed from the starch and
sugar, or albuminous matter, of the food, than from the
waxy matter which is present in such considerable
quantities. There is only one instance, with which
physiologists are at present acquainted, that could be
adduced as evidence in favor of any substance being
rendered more complex in the animal system, viz., the
production of fibrin or flesh from curd or casein. So
far as chemical experiments carry us, we are not in a
condition to affirm that no fibrin exists in milk, but it is
admitted that none has as yet been detected. If these
be correct, then it would appear to follow that the in-
fant fed on milk must derive its flesh from the curd of
that fluid, and that as curd contains no phosphorus,
(while fibrin does,) the curd of the milk, in order to
form muscular fibre, is united to phosphorus in the
animal system, and is thus built up, instead of being,
as is the rule with other substances, reduced to a
smaller number of elements.

The objection to this view of the subject is, that the
experiments which have been made on fibrin do not
prove that it contains phosphorus ; they only prove that
phosphoric acid can be detected in it even when it is
purified in the most careful manner suggested by chem-
ical knowledge ; and it would therefore be somewhat
premature to adopt any such analogy as that which we
have been considering.*

* When this passage was written, in November, 1845, I founded

HAY AND GRASS AS FOOD.

67

On the Nature of Grass and Hay as Food. — Grass,
as may be readily imagined, varies very considerably
in its composition, according to its age, and also, as
may be expected, according to its species. The ex-
periments undertaken during the present investigation
have sufficiently demonstrated the first of these posi-
tions ; but the second is still open for inquiry, since
chemists who have previously analyzed grass and hay
have omitted to particularize the botanical names of the
plants which they have examined. The grass used in
the present experiments consisted almost entirely of
rye grass, (Lolium perenne,) and the hay employed
was also similarly constituted.

It may be interesting, for the sake of comparison, to
give a table of the analysis of such specimens of hay as
have been analyzed hitherto : —

my reasoning in reference to the probability of phosphorus not being a
constituent of animal substances partly on the circumstance that Fre-
my, in his analysis of the acid of the nerves, (cerebric acid,) found 0*9
per cent, of phosphorus ; while, in my examination of the same sub-
stance, further purified, I found only 0-46 per cent. Since that period,
however, Liebig has found that, when properly prepared, fibrin and
albumen are destitute of phosphorus. In the May number of the Phil-
osophical Magazine for 1846, I have described a modification of fibrin
under the name of pegmin, well known as the buffy coat of inflamed
blood. This substance contains sulphur, and cannot therefore be termed
an oxide of protein. Under the name of pyropin I have also described
a ruby-colored substance found in the position of the pulp of the ele-
phant's tooth. The following is their composition: —

Carbon
Hydrogen
Nitrogen -
Oxygen -
Sulphur -

• s

Pegmin.

Pyropin.

52-07

7-00

14-31

26-62

I.
53-33
7-52
14-50 J

24.65 C

ii.

53-50

7-66

38-84

68

COMPOSITION OF RYE-GRASS.

II.

III.

Analysis of hay made at Giessen by Dr. Will :

the species of grass is not mentioned.
Hay grown in the neighborhood of Strasburg in

France, analyzed by M. Boussingault : the name

of the grass is omitted.
Analysis of Lolium perenne, as previously given

and used in the present experiments.

Carbon

I.

II.

III.

45-87

45-80

4541

Hydrogen

5-76

500

593

Nitrogen -
Oxygen -

\

4155

i

1-50

38-70

1-84
39-21

Ash

6-82

9-00

761

Although the species of grasses constituting these
specimens of hay were in all probability different, the
correspondence in their composition is sufficiently stri-
king.

The amount of solid matter in this grass varied from
eighteen to upwards of thirty per cent., according to
the early or late period of its growth. The grass made
use of in the first experiment contained from eighteen
to twenty-five per cent. In our calculations the latter
number has been adopted.

When grass first springs above the surface of the
earth the principal constituent of its early blades is
water, the amount of solid matter being comparatively
trifling ; as it rises higher into day the deposition of a
more indurated form of carbon gradually becomes more
considerable ; the sugar and soluble matter at first in-
creasing, then gradually diminishing, to give way to
the deposition of woody substance.

COMPOSITION OF RYE-GRASS.

69

The following table affords a view of the composition
of rye-grass before and after ripening : —

Water

Solid Matter -

18th June.

23d June.

13th July.

76-19
2381

8123

18-77

6900
31-00

These are important practical facts for the agri-
culturist ; for if, as we have endeavored to show, the
sugar be an important element of the food of ani-
mals, then it should be an object with the farmer to
cut grass for the purpose of haymaking at that period
when the largest amount of matter soluble in water is
contained in it. This is assuredly at an earlier pe-
riod of its growth than when it has shot into seed, for
it is then that woody matter predominates ; a substance
totally insoluble in water, and therefore less calculated
to serve as food to animals than substances capable of
assuming a soluble condition. This is the first point
for consideration in the production of hay, since it ought
to be the object of the farmer to preserve the hay for
winter use in the condition most resembling the grass
in its highest state of perfection. The second consid-
eration in haymaking is to dry the grass under such
circumstances as to retain the soluble portion in per-
fect integrity. To ascertain whether hay, by the pro-
cess and exposure which it undergoes, loses any of its
soluble constituents, the following experiments were
made : —

1st. — 3000 grains of rye-grass in seed, on the 13th
July, gave up to hot water a thick sirupy fluid,
which, when dried till it ceased to lose weight

70 DIFFERENCE OF GRASS AND HAY.

at 212°, weighed 217*94 grains, equivalent to
7'26 per cent.

2d. — 2500 grains of rye-grass, digested in cold wa-
ter, yielded 53*23 grains of extract, equal to
2' 12 per cent. This rye-grass contained 31
per cent, of solid matter, and 69 per cent, of
water.

3d. — New hay, made from rye-grass, and containing
20 per cent, of water, for the sake of compari-
son, was also subjected to similar trials.

Grains. Grains.

1st. 1369 gave to hot water 220'77 of extract, 16*12 per cent.

1000 - - 159-34 - - 1593

1000 - 140 - - 14

2d. 2000 grains of new hay, in seed, digested in cold water,

yielded 10T3 grains of extract == 5'06 per cent, of soluble

matter.

From these numbers we learn that 100 parts of hay
are equivalent to 387| of grass. This amount of grass
should contain of soluble matter in hot water 28*13
parts, and in cold water 8*21 parts. But the equiva-
lent quantity of hay, or 100 parts, only contains 16
instead of 28 parts soluble in hot water, and 5*06 in-
stead of 8^ parts soluble in cold water. A very large
proportion of the soluble matter of the grass has ob-
viously disappeared in the conversion of grass into
hay. The result of the haymaking in this particular
instance has, therefore, been to approximate the soft,
juicy, and tender grass to woody matter, by washing
out or decomposing its sugar and other soluble consti-
tuents. These facts enable us to explain the reason
why cattle consume a larger amount of hay than is
equivalent to the relative quantity of grass. Thus ani-

DECOMPOSITION OF HAY. 71

mals which can subsist upon 100 lbs. of grass should
be able to retain the same condition by the use of 25
lbs. of hay, if the latter suffered no deterioration in
drying. The present series of experiments, however,
show that a cow, thriving on 100 to 120 lbs. of grass,
required 25 lbs. of hay, and 9 lbs. of barley or malt,
affording thus collateral evidence of the view which we
have taken of the imperfection of the process of hay-
making at present in use in this country.

The great cause of the deterioration of hay is the
water which may be present, either from the incom-
plete removal of the natural amount of water in the
grass by drying, or by the absorption of this fluid from
the atmosphere. Water when existing in hay from
either of these sources will induce fermentation, a pro-
cess by which one of the most important constituents
of the grass, — viz., sugar — will be destroyed. The
action necessary for decomposing the sugar is induced
by the presence of the albuminous matter of the grass ;
the elements of the sugar are made to re-act on each
other in the moist state in which they exist, in conse-
quence of the presence of the water and oil, and are
converted into alcohol and carbonic acid according to
the following formula : —

Carb. Hyd. Oxyg.

1 atom sugar - - - - - 12 12 12

2 atoms alcohol 8 12 4
4 atoms carbonic acid 4 0 8

That alcohol is produced in a heated haystack in
many cases may be detected by the similarity of the
odor disengaged to that perceptible in a brewery. We
use this comparison because it has been more than

72 LOSS SUSTAINED BY

once suggested to us by agriculturists. The quantity
of water or volatile matter capable of being removed
fiom hay at the temperature of boiling water varies
considerably. The amount of variation during the
present experiments was from 20 to 14 per cent. If
the lower per-centage could be attained at once by
simple drying in the sun, the process of haymaking
would probably admit of little improvement ; but the
best new-made hay that we have examined contained
more than this amount of water, the numbers obtained
verging towards 20 per cent. When it contains as
much as this it is very liable to ferment, especially if it
should happen to be moistened by any accidental ap-
proach of water. The only method which we have
found to succeed in preserving grass perfectly entire is
by drying it by means of artificial heat. Rye grass
contains, at an early period of its growth, as much as
81 per cent, of water, the whole of which may be re-
moved by subjecting the grass to a temperature con-
siderably under that of boiling water ; but, even with
a heat of 120°, the greater portion of the water is re-
moved, and the grass still retains its green color, a cha-
racter which appears to add greatly to the relish with
which cattle consume this kind of provender. When
this dried grass (as it may be truly termed by way of
distinction from hay) is examined, it will be found to
consist of a series of tubes, which, if placed in water,
will be filled with the fluid, .and assume in some meas-
ure the aspect of its original condition. In this form
cattle will eat it with relish, and prefer it to hay, which,
in comparison, is blanched, dry, and sapless. The ad-
vantages obtained by this method of making hay, or
rather of preserving grass in a dry state, are sufficiently

HAY IN DRVING. 73

obvious. By this means all the constituents of the
grass are retained in a state of integrity ; the sugar,
by the absence of water, is protected from undergoing
decomposition, the coloring matter of the grass is com-
paratively little affected, while the soluble salts are not
exposed to the risk of being washed out by the rains,
as in the common process of haymaking. The amount
of soluble matter capable of being taken up by cold
water is, according to the preceding trials, as much as
5 per cent., or a third of the whole soluble matter in
hay. We may therefore form some notion of the in-
jury liable to be produced by every shower of rain
which drenches the fields during hay harvest. It is
not only, however, the loss which it sustains, in re-
gard to the sugar and soluble salts, that renders hay so
much less acceptable than grass to the appetite of cat-
tle. The bleaching which it undergoes in the sun de-
prives it of the only peculiarity which distinguishes
the one form of fodder from the other ; grass deprived
of its green coloring matter presents exactly the ap-
pearance of straw, so that hay ought to be termed
grass straw. It is obvious, from the experiments de-
tailed, that the operation of haymaking, as conducted
in this country, has a tendency to remove a great pro-
portion of the wax in the grass. Thus it was found
that rye-grass contained 2' 01 per cent, of wax. Now
as 387| parts of rye-grass are equivalent to 100 parts
of hay, and as 387| parts of grass contain 7'78 parts
of wax, it is obvious that 100 parts of hay should con-
tain the same amount of wax ; but by experiment it
was found that 200 grains of hay contained 4 grains
of wax, which is equivalent to 2 per cent., almost ex-
actly the amount contained in grass. Hence it appears

7

74

AMOUNT OF RAIN FALL.

that no less than 5*78 grains of wax have disappeared
during the haymaking process. The whitening process
which the grass undergoes in drying renders it appa-
rent that the green coloring matter has undergone
change ; but that it should have been actually removed
to such an extent, or at least have become insoluble in
ether, is a result which could scarcely have been an-
ticipated without actual experiment. Some improve-
ment in the preparation of hay is imperatively demand-
ed in such localities as are affected with a more than
usual fall of rain. The following table of the fall of
rain will point out where such precautions are more
particularly required : —

Glasgow -
London -

Inches.

2T3
24'0

Edinburgh ■ -

245

Berwickshire -

32-5

5 Abbey St. Bathans,
\ 400 feet above sea.

Manchester -

36-1

Lancaster -

39-7

Paisley -

47-1

at the Reservoir.

Strathaven -

45-8

700 feet above sea.

Greenock ...

61-8

j 800 feet above the
( town.

The Glasgow result is the mean of many years' ob-
servation at the Macfarlane Observatory. The London
is taken from the Royal Society Register, the mean of
ten years. The Edinburgh number is from observa-
tions at the observatory. The Berwickshire number
is the mean of two years' register, by Mr. Wallace,
kept at my request. The Manchester and Lancaster
are from Dr. Dalton. The Paisley and Greenock re-
sults are from the water-works register, the mean of

ARTIFICIAL HAYMAKING. 75

seven years. The Strathaven number is from registers
kept at my request by Mr. Wiseman.

Frequently the quantity of rain which falls in May
and June, the haymaking season," is greater than in
April and July. In those localities where the fall of
rain is so considerable, the preparation of good sound
hay by the usual process will be almost impracticable,
and in such places too frequently hay in a state of de-
composition is given to animals, at the risk of their
being seriously injured, since all food whose particles
are in a state of fermentation or putrefaction, which
are analogous actions, must have a tendency to pro-
duce similar decompositions in the fluids of the animal
system. In the neighborhood of manufacturing towns
there could be no difficulty in preparing abundance of
hay by the process now recommended. The waste
heat of the chimneys might be sent through apartments
or sheds of almost temporary construction, guided by
a proper draught, so as to carry off the vapor as soon
as it is volatilized ; and the same arrangements might,
with economy, be adopted in conjunction with brick
and tile works. Haymaking would thus commence at
a much earlier period of the season, the grass would
be cut, carted to the drying-room, and in the course of
a few hours be ready for stacking. When hay pre-
pared in this manner is to be given to cattle and horses
it may be steeped in a tank for twenty-four hours, or
any adequate period, before being placed in the racks
and boxes ; and the steep water, which will contain
sugar and soluble salts, should be given them to
drink.

By this system of preserving grass we should be
continuing to our cattle in winter our summer food,

76 ARTIFICIAL GRASS AND CORN DRYING.

which all admit to be superior to every other substi-
tute ; and while the animals themselves would be ben-
efited, much uneasiness and trouble in winter would be
saved to the farmer. In a moist climate, especially
like that exhibited in Scotland during the last year, it
appears highly desirable that farmers should possess
on their premises a drying-room, where hay, potatoes,
and even corn, might be dried. Had such a conve-
nience been attached to many of our farmers' offices
last st ison much corn might have been saved, even by
drying one or two cart-loads daily. This desideratum
might be effected by running a flue through the barn,
level with the floor, its upper surface being covered
with iron plate or tiles. By means of a small quantity
of fuel a bam -full of corn in sheaves, properly dis-
posed, might be dried in a few hours. The artificial
method of drying grass here suggested will of course
be unnecessary when the grass can be deprived of its
water by the heat of the sun with sufficient rapidity,
and without being exposed to the drenching influence
of the rain of our northern climate. That rapid drying
can be effected, even in wet seasons, in Scotland, I
have had an opportunity of witnessing, in the case of
an excellent sample of hay prepared during the sum-
mer of 1845, on the grounds of Mr. Fleming, of Baro-
chan, for a specimen of which I am indebted to that
gentleman. The only complaint which I have heard
offered to the English plan of haymaking is the addi-
tional amount of labor required, but surely any rational
excess of labor is preferable to the complete deteriora-
tion of the hay crop.

The constituents of the rye-grass, washed out by
rain, would be principally the sugar and soluble salts.

COMPOSITION OF RYE-GRASS.

77

The nature of the inorganic salts, both of the stem of
the grass, when dried, as hay, and of the seeds, is as
represented in the following tables.

100 parts of the stem and seeds were composed as
follows : —

Water

Organic Matter -

Ash -

Stem.

Stem.

Seed.

15-50
7952

4-98

19*30

75-72
4-98

11-376

82-548
6-070

Table of Saline Matter in Stem and Seeds of Lolium
perenne, (Rye-grass.)

Silica -

Phosphoric Acid -

Sulphuric Acid

Chlorine

Carbonic Acid

Magnesia

Lime -

Peroxide of Iron -

Potash

Soda -

Stem.

Seed.

64-57

4328

1251

16-89

-

312

-

trace

_

361

401

531

6-50

18-55

0-36

2-10

8-03

5-80

2-17

1-38

There is no doubt, from numerous other analyses
which I have made, that these numbers undergo very
considerable modifications on different soils.

A comparison of the two columns of this table adds
another argument to that already brought forward
against the practice of allowing rye-grass to come to
seed before cutting it for hay, since the seed tends to
remove a larger portion of phosphoric acid from the
soil than the stem ; the quantity of acid found in the

78 COMPOSITION OF RYE-GRASS.

seed exceeding that in the stem by one fourth. A sim-
ilar observation, with greater force, applies to the lime,
as the amount of this earth is two thirds greater in the
seed than in the stem. The quantity of alkalies is
twice as great in the stem as in the seed, while the
total ash of the seed is a sixth part superior in amount
to that of the stem.

BARLEY AND MALT DIET. 79

CHAPTER VI.

ON BARLEY AND MALT DIET.

BARLEY AND MALT, WHEN NOT CRUSHED, ALTHOUGH STEEPED IN HOT
WATER, ARE IMPERFECTLY DIGESTED BY COWS. — TOO LARGE A QUAN-
TITY OF GRAIN DIMINISHES THE AMOUNT OF MILK. BARLEY PRODUCES

A GREATER QUANTITY OF MILK AND BUTTER THAN MALT. DIFFERENCE

IN THE ULTIMATE COMPOSITION OF BARLEY AND MALT. DIFFERENCE

IN THE AMOUNT OF NITROGEN IN BARLEY AND MALT. DIFFERENCE IN

THE SALINE CONSTITUENTS OF BARLEY AND MALT. EFFECT OF THE

PROCESS OF MALTING.

Although it might appear that the most correct
method of determining experimentally the comparative
nutritive effect of food would be to accustom an animal
to a diet of one species of food, and then to substitute
for a certain portion of it a definite quantity of that
whose nutritive power was intended to be tried, and,
lastly, to calculate the results, experience leads us to a
different method of investigation. Physiology tends to
show us, that an animal performing certain functions
consumes an amount of oxygen daily, varying accord-
ing to the state of the atmosphere and to other physical
causes which are not always capable of appreciation.
We adduce at once, then, from these circumstances,
apart from experiments, that an animal consumes every
day a different amount of fodder, and that, if it is not
permitted to use as much food as shall repair the waste
of its system, it must lose flesh and strength ; and

80 INFLUENCE OF

hence experiments made without a due attention to the
physiological state of the animal must lead to conclu-
sions which are not legitimate. The force of this ob-
servation we have had sufficient opportunities of ob-
serving, not only on the present but on other occasions,
and it may be illustrated by the following example : —
A cow, if fed for two days on an insufficient quantity
of food, as indicated by loss of weight and diminution
of milk, will require at least double that time to reach
the condition from which it had deteriorated ; and the
reason of this is obvious, because the partial starvation
has caused it to lose a portion of the substance of its
body, which requires a longer time to re-establish than
to pull down. This rule is applicable to the dietary
of men as well as the inferior animals. An increase
of labor should always be accompanied with an in-
crease of food, both at sea and in prison ; a short walk
to one confined in a solitary cell calls for some aug-
mentation of food. A slight increase of temperature,
or the irritating influence of insects, will effectually
diminish the milk of a cow, and indicates the propriety
of increasing the amount of fodder. The first two of
the following experiments demonstrates these positions
in a striking manner. With the entire malt and barley
the amount of grass was limited, but afterwards the hay
was supplied ad libitum.

ENTIRE BARLEY AS FOOD.

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ENTIRE BARLEY AS FOOD.

83

The result of this and the following experiment de-
monstrates the importance of reducing the food to a
fine state of division.

Previous to this experiment, as will be observed by
consulting the table of experiments on the effect of
grass in feeding the cows, the animals were both gain-
ing weight. By calculating the value of the barley as
a nutritious body from the nitrogen contained in it, it
was found that 2\ lbs. of barley contain as much albu-
minous nutriment as 10 lbs. of grass. The result of
the experiment, however, shows that although this fact
may be correct, yet that the conditions of the trial were
not such as to prevent the animals from falling off both
in milk and in weight. The true reason of the failure
seems to have been, that the digestion of the barley
was in some degree prevented by the want of power
in the animal organs to rupture the husk of the grain.
The result of the experiment demonstrates the import-
ance of a certain amount of cookery in feeding cattle
which are possessed of teeth only in one jaw.

The data which have served as the basis of the pre-
ceding calculations are included in the following table,
as derived from repeated experiments : —

Water and Solid Matter in Food.

Solid Matter -
Water -

Milk.

Dung.

Grass.

Barley.

12-6

87-4

13-46

86-54

31-

69-

90-54
9-46

The white cow's milk on the second of July, or ninth
day of the experiment, possessed the following compo-
sition, the specific gravity being 1,032 :

84 ENTIRE BARLEY AS FOOD.

Water 87 '40

Soluble salts 0*17

Insoluble salts - 0*42
Butter -\

Sugar > ... 12-01
Casein 3

In several determinations the water in the milk of
both cows was never found to vary more than a few
tenths when prooerly dried.

In comparing this experiment with the preceding, by
examining the proximate tables, (Table I. Appendix,)
we find that while 100 lbs. of dry grass produce about
11| lbs. of dry milk, 100 lbs. of dry grass and entire
barley mixed produce 8| lbs. of dry milk. Grass alone
produces a larger quantity of dung than mixed barley
and grass fodder ; 100 lbs. of grass leaving 33^ lbs. of
dung, while barley and grass produce only 30 lbs. of
dung; but 100 lbs. of the grass consumed, that is, the
grass taken into the circulation of the animal, and not
rejected in the form of dung, produces 171 lbs. of dry
milk, while 100 lbs. of the mixed barley and grass diet
form only 12 lbs. of dry milk. This may proceed
from the circumstance that more solid matter was ac-
tually contained in the grass than in the equivalent of
barley employed ; but the cause becomes not so ob-
vious when we consider that a portion of the barley
was rejected entire along with the dung. The more
probable explanation of the apparent anomaly may be,
that the dung varies slightly in its composition ; the
small difference of 3% lbs. may be owing to this source
of error in the calculation. Another important deduc-
tion from these two experiments in reference to econo-
my is, that the total quantity of matter taken into the

COMPOSITION OF BARLEY

85

circulation daily is less, when grass is alone used, than
when a mixed diet is employed ; the daily consumption
being of dry grass, by both cows, 33| lbs., and of the
mixed diet 42 lbs., being a difference of 9 lbs., or 4^
lbs. by each cow.

This fact may be explained by the circumstance, that
there is a greater difficulty in digesting the grass, from
its greater bulk, than in absorbing the constituents of
the steeped barley, a large portion of which is in solu-
tion before being introduced into the stomach, and may
be partially employed with greater rapidity in the pro-
cess of producing heat, and partially be expelled as a
liquid excretion.

Ultimate Analysis of the Experiment. — The ultimate
composition of barley was found to be as follows : —

Carbon

I.

II.

III.

IV.

46-11

41-04

Hydrogen -

Nitrogen -

6-65
1-91

6-02
1-81

2-01

1-98

1-95

Oxygen
Ash -

42-24
3-09

38-28
2-79

Water

-

9-46

100-

100- i

1st, 8'87 grains of barley, dried at 212°, gave, by
combustion with chromate of lead, 15"04 carbonic acid,
and 5*3 water.

2d, 14 grains gave, with lime and soda, 1*88 plati-
num=r91 per cent, nitrogen.

3d, 0*923 gramme gave 0'288 gramme platino sal
ammoniac=r98 per cent, nitrogen.

4th, 0'834 gramme gave 0*282 platinum salt=l'95
nitrogen per cent.*

* For these two experiments I am indebted to Dr. Bottinger.

8

INFLUENCE OF

5th, in 3 gave T57 platinum=2"01 per cent, ni-

trogen.

Calculating from the composition of the grass and
barley, we find that the two cows consumed 304j lbs.
of carbon during the course of the experiment, with a
proportionate amount of the other ultimate ingredients.
In this experiment it was observed, that some of the
grains of barley were ejected from the intestines 24, 48,
and even 72 hours after being swallowed, in an entire
state, so that they must have been detained in some
portion of the alimentary canal during that lengthened
period without having undergone any appearance of
digestion.

ENTIRE MALT AS FOOD.

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ENTIRE MALT AS FOOD. 89

The malt was covered with boiling-hot water, and
allowed to remain for twelve hours, in the first part of
the experiment ; in the latter period of the trial the
malt was weighed out in three portions ; the last por-
tion was therefore subjected to a digestion of twenty-
four hours. The mash water was always acid, and
yet was relished by the cattle. This is opposed to the
observation of some, who affirm that acid liquors are
not liked by cattle, although they are well known to be
a luxury to pigs.

In consequence of the cattle having fallen off during
the time in which they were fed with barley, farina-
ceous food was entirely discontinued, and a larger
quantity of grass was substituted previous to the com-
mencement of the experiment with malt. The result
of this experiment is at once observed by an inspection
of the table. The brown cow fell off in the amount of
butter during the first five days, but increased during
the remainder of the trial. The white cow gave a
larger quantity of butter with malt than with barley.
The milk of both cows increased very considerably,
while the weight of the brown cow, which had de-
creased with the barley experiment, began to increase
under the influence of the malt. We may infer, from
the results of this experiment, the advantage of having
a large portion of the food readily soluble and adminis-
tered into the stomach of animals in this condition.
The amount of butter would appear to depend more
upon this provision than upon the quantity of matter
soluble in ether existing in the food.

The mean of several dryings gave the composition
of the dung, — water 86, solids 14. 3840 grs. of malt
bruised gave 52*7 grs. of oil— 1'37 per cent.

8*

90 ENTIRE MALT AS FOOD.

According to the preceding trials, it appears that the
barley and malt experiments may be compared as fol-
lows :— (See Appendix I.)

I. Milk:

100 lbs. of hay and barley produce
100 lbs. of hay and malt produce
II. Butter :

100 lbs. hay and barley produce -
100 lbs. hay and malt produce

8 '41 lbs. dry milk,

7-08

ditto.

1-82 lbs

i. butter.

2-07

ditto.

Loss.

lbs.

lbs.

2030

1989

41

2044

2022

22

III. Weight of cattle :

Weight of cattle before barley ex-
periment -
Weight of cattle after ditto
" " before malt ditto
" " after ditto

It is obvious from this experiment that barley pro-
duced more milk than malt, even although it was only
partially digested ; that malt produced a little more
butter ; and that the cattle diminished in weight in both
experiments : most in the barley experiment, in conse-
quence of a considerable quantity of it being thrown out
without being used by the system.

It is interesting to observe, that although the barley
and grass contained the largest amount of oil and wax,
they produced a smaller proportion of butter than the
malt and grass. This, however, may have been in part
owing to the imperfect extraction of the solid ingre-
dients in the barley experiments in consequence of the
husks remaining entire. The experiment is one, how-
ever, from which no deductions, to be entirely depended
on, are to be made. It demonstrates the necessity of
cooking barley, more especially when it is employed to

COMPOSITION OF FOOD AND DUNG.

91

feed cattle. (1) 8*96 grains of malt, dried at the tem-
perature of 212°, gave, when burned with chromate of
lead, 14*3 carbonic acid and 5*66 water. (2) 7'86
grains gave 12*91 carbonic acid, and 5*01 water. This
corresponds with, per cent : —

Carbon
Hydrogen -
Nitrogen -
Oxygen
Ash -
Water

I.

ir.

III.

IV.

43 93
7-00
1-50

46-30
1-27

100-

44-780
7-060
1-620

44-763

1-777

119

1-26

42-44
6-64
111

43-08
1-68
5-05

100-

1 100*

Total amount of constituents of food and dung, of
both cows, in ten days : —

Food.

Dung.

Consump-

Each per

tion.

Day.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

Carbon

238-

102-

136-

6-80

Hydrogen

32-2

12-43

19-77

0-99

Nitrogen

906

4-

5-06

0-25

Oxygen

214-88

82-57

13231

611

Ash -

34-22

21-80

12-42

0-62

14-77

Experiment IV. — Crushed Barley steeped in Boiling

Water.

As it appears from the preceding experiments that,
when barley was given in an entire state, a considera-
ble portion of the grain escaped the action of the di-
gestive organs, in consequence of the interposition of
the husk, it was necessary to try the effect of the
grain as an article of food after it had been mechan-
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92

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ON MILK AND BUTTER.

97

Experiment VI. — Larger Quantity of Crushed Ba7*ley
steeped in Boiling Water.

In the preceding malt experiment the amount of
grain was pushed farther than in the case of barley ; it
was therefore considered advisable to give a similar
trial to that grain. The result shows that no advantage
is gained by the administration of so much grain, and
that a deteriorating effect is induced. The cause of
this seems to depend on the excess of nutritive over
caloriflent food, as will be afterwards explained.

Comparison of Experiments IV. , V., and VI.

I. Milk.

100 lbs. of mixed barley, hay, and grass pro-
duced 8*17 lbs. milk. (Appendix I.)

100 lbs. of mixed malt and hay produced 7*95
lbs. milk.

II. Butter.

100 lbs. barley, hay, and grass produced 1'95

butter.
100 lbs. malt and hay produced 1"92 butter.

III. Weight of cattle.

Weight of cattle before barley experiment

— after — —

— after malt —

lbs.
2022
2111
2069

Gain.

Loss.

89

42

According to this view of the experiment, it appears
that the malt produces a smaller amount of milk and
butter when combined with hay than in the barley ex-
periment, and that the cattle were losing weight, and

98 BARLEY AND MALT AS FOOD.

consequent strength, daily ; while with barley they
were gaining weight daily. In whatever manner,
therefore, we view the experiment, this is an insur-
mountable objection to the use of malt, — that it is not
capable when used in any quantity, comparatively with
barley, to sustain the weight and consequent strength
of animals. But there is another aspect in which the
experiment should be examined, and this is obviously
the correct one, since a larger quantity of malt was
used than of barley. If we consider the hay a constant
quantity, and then calculate the amount of product
which would comparatively result from each grain, the
consequences would be as follows, (Appendix I. :) —

I. Milk.

100 lbs. of barley would produce by Experi-
ment IV. 34*6 lbs. dry milk.

100 lbs. of malt would produce by Experiment
V. 26*2 lbs. dry milk.

II. Butter.

100 lbs. of barley would produce by Experi-
ment IV. 7*66 lbs. butter.

100 lbs. of malt would produce by Experiment
V. 6'35 lbs. butter.

By the present mode of comparison then it appears
that, in every point of view, malt is inferior to barley as
an article of diet for cattle, as it gives less milk and
butter, and diminishes the live weight, instead of in-
creasing it, which barley does under the same circum-
stances.

All these practical results are explained by the chemi-
cal examination of the barley and malt, which will be
subsequently stated and discussed. In the mean time

COMPOSITION OF BARLEY AND MALT.

99

it may be sufficient to intimate that the deductions now
made from the practical trials are in exact accordance
with experiments conducted in the laboratory. The
soluble salts are much diminished in the malt, and hence
a larger quantity of the grain would be required than
of barley to produce the salts of a given amount of
milk. The quantity of nitrogen is inferior to that in
the barley, and hence malt must be inferior in nutritive
agency to the barley, in comparing equal weights, while
the quantity of sugar being greater, the amount of
butter produced might be equal or nearly so to that
formed from barley, as is observable in some of the
experiments.

On the Chemical Nature of Barley and Malt.

From the nature of malting it might be expected that
a considerable difference would exist between barley,
before and after being subjected to this process.

In the following experiment the malt was made from
the same specimen of barley, so as to enable a tolerably
correct comparison to be instituted.

I. Difference in ultimate Composition. — The barley,
when subjected to organic analysis with chromate of
lead, was found to possess the following composition : —

Carbon

I.

II.

in.

IV.

41-64

46-11

Hydrogen -

6-02

6-65

Nitrogen -

1-81

201

1-91

1-98

1-95

Oxygen - -

37-66

41-06

Ash - - -

341

4-17

430

3-27

Water

9-46

100-

100-

The first column exhibits the composition of the bar-

100

COMPARATIVE COMPOSITION OF

ley in its natural state ; the second represents the con-
stituents of the barley when dried at the temperature
of 212°.

Malt from the same barley was also analyzed, and
the following result obtained : —

Carbon

Hydrogen -

Nitrogen -

Oxygen

Ash - - -

Water

I.

II.

III.

IV.

42-44
6-64
111

43-08
1-68
5-05

43-930
7-000
1-290

46-510
1-270

44-78
7-06
1-26

45-13
1-77

1-504

1-62

100-

100- | 100-

In the first column we have the composition of malt
in its natural state, and in the other columns its con-
stituents at 212°, as determined by two analyses, the
first column being calculated from the third column or
second analysis, founded upon the determination of the
amount of loss sustained when the grain was subjected
for some days to the heat of boling water in a water
bath. If we now divide the constituents of barley and
of malt by their equivalents, or combining proportions,
we shall be able to form some idea of the change which
has taken place in the barley during its conversion
into malt. The following is the result : —

Barley
Malt

C. H. N. O.

123 106 2 82
119 112 0 90

Difference

.5

0 loss
8 gain.

If we consider that 100 parts by weight of barley are
converted by the process of malting into eighty parts

BARLEY AND MALT.

101

by weight of malt, we shall have the following for-
mulae : —

Barley
Malt

C. H. N. O.

123 106 2 82

90 85 0 69

33 21 2 13 loss;

and the barley and its equivalent amount of malt will
then stand as follows, per cent., and in eighty parts :—

Carbon _•___■_
Hydrogen -
Nitrogen -
Oxygen -

Ash

Water - - -

Barley.

Malt.

41-64
6-02
1-81

37-66
3-41
9-46

3395
531

0-88

3446

1-34

4-06

100-

80-

Hence it appears that four equivalents of carbon have
disappeared in the malting, without doubt in the form
of carbonic acid, and an equivalent of nitrogen has also
been removed in the shape of albumen, possibly in part
as ammonia, while the malt contains six of hydrogen
and eight of oxygen in excess over that contained in the
barley. The odd atoms of oxygen are probably an
error of experiment ; and if we allow this then, we shall
have a difference in the malt, in the fact of six equiva-
lents of water (6h. 6o.) having been added to it during
the malting process ; and this admits of explanation
from the circumstance, that one of the important altera-
tions in malting consists of the conversion of starch into
sugar. Now the difference between starch and sugar
is simply that the latter contains more water than the

9*

J 02 IMPORTANCE OF NITROGEN AS

former, the composition and difference of these sub-
stances being as follows : —

C. H. O.

Starch - - - 12 10 10
Sugar - - - 12 12 12

0 2 2 difference.

II. Difference in the Amount of Nitrogen, and con-
sequent Nutritive Power of Malt and Barley. — In the
preceding formulae the quantity of nitrogen lost has been
somewhat exaggerated. In the formulae for malt the
true amount of nitrogen approaches nearly 1| equiva-
lent, or 1*4 ; but the quantity of nitrogen in different
parts of the same sample of malt varies very remark-
ably, indeed to such a degree that the results obtained
by three analysts, who had obtained almost identical
numbers for the nitrogen in barley, differed as much as
from 1*19 to 1*62. This indeed is a circumstance
which might be anticipated from the nature of the pro-
cess of malting, and is one which renders malt a very
objectionable substance as an article of nourishment,
since, in the same specimen, different portions would
vary so much according to the preceding data, as that
73 lbs. of one part would produce as much effect in
the nourishment of an animal as 100 lbs. of another
portion.

If we estimate the albuminous principles of grain to
contain 16 per cent, of nitrogen, then the amount of
these substances in the barley examined will amount
to 12*56 per cent., while the percentage of these prin-
ciples in the malt will only be, by the lowest estimate
of nitrogen, 7*43, and by the highest result it will be
10. So that the relative nutritive powers of barley and
malt, according to these estimates, will be as follows :

A NUTRITIVE ELEMENT. 103

59 barley = 100 malt, according to lowest estimate.
79 — = 100 — highest —

These important facts render it also obvious that the
difference in the amount of carbon in the two analyses
of malt previously given may not have risen from errors
of analysis, but from a difference actually in the consti
tution of the malt. That which contained the largest
amount of nitrogen would also contain the greatest
amount of carbon. Indeed it may be looked upon as
a rule with reference to nutritive bodies, generally
speaking, that their power of sustaining the animal
system depends, in relation to their ultimate composi-
tion, upon the amount of carbon and nitrogen which
they contain. Some have endeavored to prove that it
is the amount of carbon to which we are to look in de-
ciding upon the relative nutritive power of food, while
others have advocated the importance of nitrogen in
forming such estimates. It seems, however, certain,
from a careful study of all the facts, that such general
rules cannot safely be adopted, since, in the case of oils,
we have examples of substances containing much car-
bon which are yet incapable of supplying the waste of
the muscular substance of animals, and are therefore to
be excluded from the rank of true nutritive principles ;
while, again, we have gelatine or jelly containing near-
ly as much nitrogen as muscular fibre itself, which has
been proved to be incapable of supporting animal exist-
ence, in the manner in which we understand that ex-
pression when applied to beef or true muscular fibre.
Dogs, for example, have been made to live for months
on pure albuminous matter ; an experiment undoubted-
ly somewhat unnatural, and incapable of being persist-
ed in for any more considerable period. Again, the

104 IMPORTANCE OF NITROGEN.

true unsophisticated American Indians, near the sources
of the Missouri, during the winter months, are reported
to subsist entirely upon dried buffalo flesh — not the fat
portions, but the muscular part ; and during this period
those primitive inhabitants of the prairies, as they are
made up of nomade tribes, every man being at war
with his neighbor, are destitute of the means of supply-
ing themselves with vegetable food, as they have no
gardens, nor any species of cultivation ; but, more par-
ticularly during their subsistence on dried pemmican,
they are described by travellers who are intimate with
their habits of life as never tasting even the most mi-
nute portions of any vegetable whatever, or partaking
of any other variety of food. These facts, then, tend
to show that albuminous tissue is of itself capable of
sustaining life. But we have no example of animals
being capable of subsisting on gelatine or glue ; on the
contrary, we have proof that animals, when restricted
to the use of this species of matter, become deteriorated
in health. In the mean time, therefore, it may be advi-
sable to admit, that we are unacquainted with the exact
position gelatine holds in the nutritive category, and to
place it among the exceptions to the nearly general fact,
that the amount of nitrogen is an important element in
calculating the value of a substance as a nutritive agent.
When we reflect that animals subsisting upon vegeta-
ble food contain an equal quantity of gelatine as a con-
stituent of their tissues with those which have partaken
of animal food alone, we can scarcely fail to conclude
that gelatine, or glue, is a product of the alteration of
albuminous matter, and a stage in its downward pro-
gress to the state of urea, or an ammoniacal salt, for the
purpose of being removed from the system ; and hence,

CARBON CONSUMED DAILY. 105

that it is not capable of forming the muscular or highest
order of animal matter. With this exception, then, we
are inclined to adopt the idea, that the amount of car-
bon and nitrogen present in a substance supplies us
with one of the data for calculating its capability to
supply the waste of the muscular system of animals,
the relation of the two substances, to constitute an effi-
cient nutritive substance being nearly as 70 to 9 of their
equivalents, represented by the formula 70 C. 9 N., the
relation in gelatine being nearly as 66 C. 8f N. The
first formula will be found useful for practical purposes ;
since, when we have determined by analysis the amount
of carbon and nitrogen consumed by an animal, we can
distinguish, by dividing the respective numbers by those
of the formulae, how many equivalents of the total car-
bon are associated with the nitrogen, and employed by
the animal for the purpose of supplying the waste of
the muscular system, or by bearing in mind that the
relation of nitrogen to the carbon of muscular fibre is
as 16 to 53 nearly, we can discover the amount of car-

bon united to the nitrogen by the simple formula .

In a cow, for example, consuming per day 7 lbs. of carbon
and I lb. of nitrogen, it will be found how insignificant
is the quantity of carbon required for repairing the loss

53 x '25

of the muscular system, '-1— — — = 0'828 lbs. Hence

we see that 6' 172 lbs. of carbon of the daily food of a
cow must be employed for a purpose totally distinct
from proper nutrition. We are at present acquainted
with only one other purpose for which the carbon of the
food can be employed, viz. for the generation of animal
heat throughout the body; a function undoubtedly

106 * OXYGEN CONSUMED DAILY.

carried on, not only in the kings, but also throughout
the entire capillary system of the skin, at least in man
and perspiring animals. If this view be correct, then
it follows that upwards of 6 lbs. of carbon are expended
by a cow daily in the production of animal heat. And
as 1 lb. of carbon, when combined with the necessary
amount of oxygen to form carbonic acid, gives out as
much heat as would melt 104*2 lbs. of ice, it is evident
that the quantity of ice capable of being melted by the
heat generated by a cow in one day would amount to
upwards of 625 lbs., or it would heat 1 lb. of water
87,528°. It would consume at the same time the
enormous quantity of 330429 cubic inches of oxygen,
or 191 1 cubic feet of this gas ; and as this amounts to
one-fifth of the atmospheric air, we find that a cow, con-
suming 6 lbs. of carbon for respiratory purposes, would
require 956 I cubic feet of atmospheric air, a sufficient
indication of the immense importance of a free ventila-
tion in cow-houses, and of the danger of overcrowding,
if the animals are expected to retain a healthy condi-
tion. It is not to be supposed that the food, destined
for the purposes of respiration, is thrown off in the form
of carbonic acid as soon as it passes into the circula-
tion. On the contrary, we may infer, from various ex-
periments, that it remains for some time in the system
in the condition of preparatory fuel, if we may so speak,
undergoing during that period certain changes neces-
sary for enabling it to take part in the respiratory
function.

III. Difference in the Saline Constituents of Barley
and Malt. — Barley. — The amount of inorganic matter
existing in different specimens of barley varies very

SALTS OF BARLEY AND MALT." 107

considerably. This might be anticipated from the fact,
which is now generally admitted, that the azotized or
nutritive principles of grain or seeds bear a relation to
the phosphoric acid present. (Liebig.) Thus, if the
quantity of phosphoric acid in barley be small, it will
follow that the amount of nitrogen will be proportion-
ally deficient, and that the nutritive effect of the grain
will be comparatively low in the scale, because the solu-
bility of the albuminous matters, and therefore their
capability of being carried into plants, appears to depend
on the presence of the phosphates. In the analyses
which have been published of this nature, the experi-
menters have omitted to state whether the husks were
included in the amount of grain burned by them ; in
the following results the omission has been filled up.
In the three last experiments, 1000 grains of the barley
were burned ; in the first, the amount ignited was
about fifty grains, but the ash was perfectly white, con-
taining not a trace of charcoal.

Flour. With husk.

Barley - I. II. III. IV. V. VI.

Inorganic matter,

percent. -4-17 3'87 3"27 3'20 3'02 2-70

In all these experiments the grain was dried at 212°,
and each number represents the percentage of inorganic
matter. The specimens were all different, but the first
result was obtained from the barley used in the experi-
ments. These numbers differ to a considerable degree
from the experiments hitherto published. The follow-
ing are such as have come in our way with reference
to the per-centage amount of ash in barley : —

108 SALINE MATTER IN

I.

II.

1-80

2-70

Saussure.

Koechlin

The first of these specimens was probably derived
from the neighborhood of Geneva, the second was from
Neufchatel, near the lake of that name in Switzer-
land.

The following was found to be the per-centage com-
position of the ash of barley : —

Silica ... - - 29-67

Phosphoric acid - 36'80

Sulphuric acid - - - - 0*16

Chlorine 015

Peroxide of iron - 0*83

Lime ------ 3*23

Magnesia 4*30

Potash ----- 16-00

Soda 8-86

Some chemists have found no alumina in the ashes
of grain. Boussingault states that he generally finds
traces, and in this respect our observations agree, and
in some instances the quantity has appeared almost too
considerable to be accidental.

Malt. — We are now in a condition to compare the
influence of malting on the saline constitution of the
barley. In this respect the results of the present ex-
periments corroborate those made upon the amount of
nitrogen contained in various specimens of malt, for we
find that the quantity of saline matter varies consider-
ably, although not more than in different specimens of
barley ; but we are drawn to the conclusion, that a
substance so unequal in its composition in reference to
the proportion between the soluble and insoluble saline

BARLEY AND MALT. 109

ingredients is scarcely to be recommended as a food
capable of producing a steady effect. The following
experiments exhibit the amount of saline matter in dif-
ferent samples of malt contained in 100 parts of the
grain dried at 212° : —

With husk.

I. II. III. IV.

2-38 2-66 2-43 2*46

Table of the Saline Constituents of Malt.' — The fol-
lowing table presents the results of careful analyses of
the ashes of malt : —

I.

II.

III.

Silica

-

28-74

28-65

28-98

Phosphoric

acid

3534

33-18

34-65

Chlorine

-

Trace

0-36

Peroxide of

iron

1-59

1-94

1-72

Lime

-

3-89

513

3-62

Magnesia

-

9-82

Potash -

-

14-54

11-72

Soda

-

6-08

4-90

To determine the nature of the saline ingredients
removed from barley in the malting process, it was
necessary to examine the solid constituents of steep
water. For this purpose several gallons of steep water
were evaporated to dryness, and yielded about half its
weight of organic matter, consisting of albumen and
sugar, &c.

100 grains of the salt containing this organic matter,
dried at 212°, afforded '878 nitrogen, which is equiva-
lent to 5'49 per cent, of albumen. The salts consisted
of alkaline phosphates, carbonates, sulphates, and chlo-
rides.

10

110 EFFECT OF THE

Effect of the Process of Malting. — These analyses
afford some information in reference to the process of
malting, and to the change which the barley undergoes
by this operation. One of the most striking alterations
produced in the barley, by its being steeped in cold
water for forty hours and upwards, is to diminish its
weight. Equal volumes or measures of barley and
malt were found respectively to weigh 424 and 325
grains. This would give us 100 parts by weight of
barley, equivalent to 76'65 of malt; but as barley ex-
pands slightly, or increases in bulk by steeping and
conversion into malt, the difference between the two
conditions is scarcely so considerable. In three re-
turns obtained by us from maltsters, we are informed
that — 1st, 27 cwt. of barley become 22|- of malt, or
equivalent to 100 barley and 83 J malt; 2d, a bushel
of barley weighing 55 lbs. becomes, when malted, from
43 to 45 lbs., or equal to 100 barley, and from 78*2 to
82 lbs. malt ; 3d, a bushel of barley weighing 55 lbs.
becomes 43 lbs. when malted, or as 100 to 78*2. The
mean of all these indicates a loss which the barlev
sustains by malting of nineteen per cent., and upwards ;
or the loss might be taken approximately at twenty per
cent., or one-fifth. The whole of this loss is not, how-
ever, solid matter ; for, according to our trials, barley,
when not crushed, contains 1 3' 1 per cent, of water,
and malt in the same condition 7*06 per cent, of water,
capable of being dissipated at the temperature of 212°.
Hence, of the nineteen per cent, of loss sustained by
the barley in malting, six per cent, is water. There
thus remain therefore only thirteen per cent, to be
ascribed to solid loss. The quantity of saline matter

PROCESS OF MALTING. Ill

removed from the barley is considerable. A mean of
several trials gives, for the ash of barley, three per
cent., and for that of malt 2"52 per cent. Now as 100
barley are equal to 80 malt, the quantity of ash which
malt should contain is 2*42, if the loss of inorganic and
organic matter were equable, which we observe it to be
almost approximately from this experiment ; for the
relation of the ash which has disappeared, or 0*48 per
cent., bears almost the same proportion to the organic
matter also removed as the total quantity of ash in
barley does to the total organic matter of that grain.
Thus barley contains eighty-four per cent, of dry or-
ganic matter, and three per cent, of ash, while malt has
lost 0*48 per cent, of ash, and 12*52 of organic matter ;
and by calculation we have —

As 3 : 0-48 : : 84 : 13-4;

a remarkable coincidence, as if proving that water is
incapable of removing the ash of plants until the or-
ganic matter has undergone such a change as to allow
the ash to separate. We have thus an argument in
favor of the subsistence of a chemical union between
the inorganic and organic matter of which the substance
of farinaceous grain is composed. Should this view
be well founded, the amount of ash in grain, we might
expect, would bear a constant ratio to the dry organic
matter by weight in whatever soil it might be grown.
It would also follow that cold water will not take up
saline matter from an entire seed simply by washing
or slight digestion.

The loss sustained by barley in malting may perhaps
be stated as follows • —

112 EFFECT OF THE

Water 6'00

Saline matter - 0*48

Organic matter - 12*52

1900

The nature of the saline matter removed from the
barley is exhibited in the analysis of steep-water ash,
although it is not so easy to explain the source of some
of the constituents. We observe, in the first instance,
that silica has been removed from the barley ; the steep-
water ash containing about 2 per cent, of silica. That
this substance is united with potash is obvious from the
gelatinization which occurs when hydrochloric acid is
added to the steep salt. The origin of the carbonic
acid, or rather its condition of union, is not so apparent:
it might be attributed to the impurity of the water, but
the presence of a minute amount only of lime opposes
this explanation. The water used in the steep was the
Clyde water, which contains chalk in solution, and sul-
phate of lime. To this source the sulphuric acid may
owe its presence. The richness of the steep water in
alkaline salts suggests its employment as a manure. A
considerable part of the organic matter of the barley is
dissipated in the form of carbonic acid, but a large por-
tion of the albumen and sugar is also dissolved in the
water, the solution of the albuminous matter being pro-
bably assisted by the action of the phosphates, which
are capable of dissolving, it is well known, some of its
forms, more particularly casein. The quantity of ni-
trogen obtained from the steep salt, when evaporated
and dried at 212°, was very considerable, being equiv-
alent to five and a half per cent, of albumen, if the
whole of the nitrogenous matter existed in the form of

PROCESS OF MALTING. 113

that principle. But, besides this substance, there was
present also a large quantity of other organic matter in
the steep solution, since the steep salt, when dried at
212°, and then ignited, lost upwards of forty per cent,
of its weight.

The views which we have been discussing of the
difference in the chemical composition of barley and
malt are sufficient to render it obvious that malt is a
much more expensive substance, irrespective of duty,
than barley for feeding, inasmuch as it is in reality bar-
ley deprived of a certain portion of its nutritive matter
and salts. The only advantage which it seems to hold
out in cattle feeding is the relish which it gives to a
mash ; but as this depends entirely upon the sugar
which it contains, and which has been produced from
the starch of the barley, it is obvious that the same
flavor may be imparted by the addition of an equivalent
amount of molasses or sugar, should it be considered
expedient. But we believe this mixture would be op-
posed to the true laws of dieting, to be subsequently
discussed : we have always, however, found steeped
barley to be highly relished by cattle. Malt, however,
from the diastase it contains, has the power of speedily
converting the starch of barley into sugar : according
to Payen, a handful of malt would be sufficient to sac-
charize several pounds of barley in the steep.

10*

114 EFFECT OF MOLASSES,

CHAPTER VII.

EFFECT OF MOLASSES, LINSEED, AND BEANS, IN THE
PRODUCTION OF MILK AND BUTTER.

MOLASSES GIVES LESS MILK AND BUTTER THAN A DIET CONTAINING MORE

NITROGEN. LINSEED GAVE LESS BUTTER THAN BEAN MEAL, ALTHOUGH

CONTAINING MORE OIL, PROBABLY IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE CONSTI-
TUENTS OF BEANS BEING IN THE NATURAL PROPORTION TO RESTORE
THE WASTE OF THE ANIMAL SYSTEM.

The following experiments were instituted for the pur-
pose of determining the effect of other important species
of food to serve as objects of comparison. The tables
which follow include the result experienced by feeding
both cattle on barley and molasses, barley and linseed,
and on bean meal. The object of continuing the barley
with the molasses and linseed was to enable an appre-
ciation to be more readily formed of the effect of the
substitution of one kind of food for another, without
subjecting the animal to an entire change of diet. This
mode of procedure was suggested by physiological
principles, and was conducted in the same manner as
the dieting of the human species. The experiments,
however, have shown that attention to this point is not
so indispensable as might at first sight appear, since a
complete change of food is often followed by an in-
crease of the secretions of milk and butter.

LINSEED, AND BEANS. 115

For steady and unwearied assistance in the whole of
these experiments, I have been much indebted to my
intelligent pupil, Mr. Hugh B. Tennent. Most of the
weighings, &c. of food were made by us conjointly,
and none of them without the presence of one or both
of us.

116

BARLEY AND MOLASSES.

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EFFECT OF LINSEED, MOLASSES, AND BEANS. 121

From the three preceding tables we learn the follow-
ing particulars in reference to the milk and butter of
the cows : —

I. Milk: lbs.
1000 lbs. of hay, barley, and molasses produce

of dry milk --..-._ go-g

1000 lbs. of hay, barley, and linseed - - 84*5

1000 lbs. ditto bean meal - - 81'3

II. Butter :

1000 lbs. of hay, barley, and molasses produce

butter - - 2T9

1000 lbs. of hay, barley, and linseed - - 21*5

1000 lbs. ditto bean meal - - 225

or, considering the hay a constant quantity, then we
have the results as follows : —

I. Milk: . lbs.

1000 lbs. barley and molasses produce of milk 237

1000 lbs. ditto linseed - 257

1000 lbs. bean meal 252

II. Butter :

1000 lbs. barley and molasses produce of butter 64'5

1000 lbs. ditto linseed - 65*7

1000 lbs. bean meal - 70*0

By examining the 4th Table in Appendix, we ob-
serve the comparative effect of linseed and beans, during
equal periods, in producing milk and butter. In the
case of the white cow, particularly, the results are quite
unequivocal ; for while during five days the milk pro-
duced by beans was equal to the mean of that produced
by linseed during ten days, the amount of butter under
the bean diet was greater than under any other kind of
food whatever. This is an important fact in reference
to the source of butter in the food, since the linseed
meal, employed in the experiments, contained twice as

11

122 EFFECT OF LINSEED AND T5EANS AS FOOD.

much oil as the bean meal. In the brown cow also the
quantity of butter was greater, especially during the
second five days, with beans than with linseed. Mo-
lasses produced in the brown cow also a larger quantity
of butter than the linseed, while the amount was slightly
inferior to that produced by the beans. These facts,
then, are not agreeable to the opinion that the amount
of butter afforded by a cow is a test of the amount of
oil contained in the food ; and hence we are not entitled
to recommend oily food as preferable for the production
of butter and of fat in animals to food which experience
teaches us to be productive of this effect, although less
rich in oleaginous matter. Indeed, the constant prac-
tice of giving oil cake to cattle is not an argument in
favor of the importance of oil in the formation of fat,
since from oil cake as much of the natural oil of the
rape-seed or linseed has been removed by expression
as mechanical means can effect. The oil-cake argu-
ment is so much the more, therefore, calculated to re-
fute the objects to which it is generally applied.

The chemical composition of the linseed and bean
meal is calculated to throw some light on the causes
of the differences in the amount of products in the ex-
periments. The following table represents the ultimate
composition of linseed and bean meal, determined by
combustion with chromate of lead.

AND BEANS AS FOOD.

123

Table of ultimate Composition of Linseed and Beans,

Carbon -

Linseed.

Beans.

4251

Dried at

212°.

4076

Dried at

212°.

4955

45-59

Hydrogen
Nitrogen

622

3-78

7-26
4-41

413

461

Oxygen -

Ash ...

26-35
6'94

30-68

8-10

3-22

396

Water ...

14-20

1060

Table of the Composition of the Ash of Linseed and
Bean Meal. (Horse Bean.)

SiJica ------

Linseed.

Bean Meal.

34-85

1312

Phosphoric Acid - - - -

2522

35

26

Sulphuric Acid -

2-85

1

29

Chlorine -

trace

1

75

Lime

695

5

18

Peroxide of Iron -

323

1

80

Magnesia -

8-04

9

03

Potash

16-85

23

15

Soda ------

2-22

9-42

The great preponderance of alkaline salts in bear
meal is observed distinctly in its incineration, as the ash
fuses into a white salt, and, if care is not taken, will en-
close charcoal, which can with difficulty be burned
away. To avoid this obstacle the meal should at first
be burned, with free exposure to air, at a low red
heat.

From this and the preceding table we find that a
given weight of bean ash contains a much larger quan-
tity of phosphoric acid than the same amount of linseed ;
but as the ash of linseed is double in amount to that of

124 WAX CANNOT SUPPLY BUTTER.

the beans, there is present a larger per-centage of phos-
phoric acid than in beans. Linseed, however, contains
a large quantity of silica and sand, which is useless to
the animal system. The superior influence of beans in
producing milk and butter is attributable to the consti-
tuents of milk existing with proper equilibrium. They,
therefore, restore the waste of the animal system in the
proper proportions.

The present tables also seem to prove most conclu-
sively, that the butter of the cows cannot possibly be
produced from the wax and oil of the food, since the
greater portion of the wax of the food reappears in the
dung, (Table I. Appendix,) being expelled from the ani-
mal without change ; while the butter and wax of the
dung greatly exceed all the oil and wax of the food.
From these circumstances it is very much to be doubt-
ed, whether the wax of hay occupies any place in the
production of the fat and butter of animals. In all the
experiments the wax of the dung was found always to
vary slightly, so that it seems highly probable if the
whole wax had been extracted from the dung, it would
be found that all the wax of the food was excreted by
the animals.

QUANTITY OF MILK PRODUCED, ETC. 125

CHAPTER VIII.

QUANTITY OF MILK PRODUCED BY DIFFERENT KINDS OF FOOD. EFFECT

OF GRASS IN PRODUCING MILK. INFLUENCE OF VARIETY OF FOOD ON

MILK AND ON MAN. ECONOMICAL DISHES FOR THE POOR. EFFECT OF

BARLEY AND MALT ON MILK. EFFECT OF MOLASSES, LINSEED, AND

BEANS ON THE PRODUCTION OF MILK. INFLUENCE OF QUANTITY OF

GRAIN IN THE PRODUCTION OF MILK. RATE AT WHICH FOOD IS

CHANGED INTO MILK. RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT KINDS

OF FOOD IN THE PRODUCTION OF BUTTER.

We cannot, from a mere statement of the quantity of
the produce supplied to the dairy by a cow, judge of the
influence of any particular species of food upon, the
animal, in consequence of the number of incidental cir
cumstances which tend to interfere with the natural pro
cesses carrying on in the animal system. The present
series of experiments, as they have extended over a
longer period of time than any which have previously
been presented to the public, will tend in some measure
to exhibit irregularities dependent upon the conditions
in which the animals existed, and probably enable some
conclusions to be drawn explanatory of such apparent
anomalies. It may be convenient to direct attention to
a few of these in considering some of the general con-
clusions.

I. Quantity of Milk produced by different Kinds of
Food. — In making inquiries respecting the amount of
milk afforded by cows, we cannot fail to be struck with
the vague and imperfect manner in which the attention

11*

126 QUANTITY OF MILK

of agriculturists is directed to weighing and measuring.
Thus, for example, in Scotland, where milk is generally
reckoned by the Scottish pint, when this measure is
compared with the English system there is almost uni-
formly an error made in over-estimating its capacity.
The usual allowance is four English to one Scottish
pint ; but the true relation between these measures is
much inferior to this — the English or imperial pint
having a capacity of 34' 659 cubic inches, and the
Scottish pint of 103*4 cubic inches, a Scottish pint is
very nearly equal to three English pints. When meas-
urements have been made according to the Scottish
system, a certain degree of caution must, therefore, be
exercised in converting them to the English standard.
Now, as in Scotland the actual measurements are
generally made with the Scottish pints, when the
amount of milk is stated in English pints we may almost
safely conclude that the estimate has been greatly over-
drawn ; but, even taking these sources of error into
consideration, it is very remarkable how great a differ-
ence exists in the amount of milk given by cows under
similar circumstances. No one will be surprised at the
Alderney cow of Mrs. Tabitha Bramble* affording a
daily supply of 4 gallons of milk, or 32 pints, when we
read, in more recent times, of a short-horn giving 17
Scottish pints, (51 imperial pints,) or 64^ lbs., at 10-J-
lbs. to a gallon ; and of a roan cow yielding 30 Scottish
pints, (90 imperial pints,) or 1 15J lbs., and requiring to
be milked five times a day, so that at each milking 2\

* " I am astonished that Dr. Lewis should take upon himself to give
away Alderney without my privity and concurrants. Alderney gave
four gallons a day ever since the calf was sent to market." — Humphrey
Clinker.

PRODUCED BY COWS. 127

gallons must have been extracted from the animal,* an
average allowance for one cow during the whole day.
All these statements must be understood as referring to
cows which are allowed to graze at least during the day,
and must be viewed as extraordinary cases. A nearer
approach to an average will be obtained by directing
attention to the produce of an Ayrshire cow fed in
Berwickshire, which yielded, during July 1845, 6-J-
Scottish pints, (19^ imperial pints,) 25 lbs. ; or to an
Alderney cow in Lancashire, which supplied an average
amount, in June 1845, of 20 imperial pints == 25-J lbs. ;
but even in such instances, which are taken from low-
land pasture grounds, the quantity often exceeds this
by several pints, and sometimes also falls below it to
the same extent, without any very apparent cause. In
moorland pastures the average amount of milk is, how-
ever, much inferior to what has been stated. In one
locality in the neighborhood of Glasgow, where many
cows are kept, the supply from each animal does not
average more than from 12 (15J lbs.) to 14 (18 lbs.)
imperial pints per day ; and in another moorland farm
the amount varies from 10 (12f lbs.) to 15(19 lbs.) im-
perial pints. With a statement of these data for com
parison we are enabled to form an idea of the influence
exercised in the experiment detailed. When the cows
were at pasture in Ayrshire they yielded 20 imperial
pints each per day, (25 J lbs. ;) then they were in full
exercise, and without any restriction in the amount of
their food. They might in these circumstances be rep-
resented as in a state of nature, and without any of the

* If the old Scotch wine measure is here meant, then it would be
equivalent to about twelve imperial gallons.
Stephens' Book of the Farm, III. 1275.

128 EFFECT OF GRASS AND

artificial conditions which must always, to a certain
extent, interfere with the animal processes. An ani-
mal enjoying exercise must also consume a larger
amount of food than one shut up, or, in other words, it
must convey into the system a greater quantity of ma-
terial for producing milk than an animal in a state of
confinement.

(1.) Effect of Grass in producing Milk. — For seven
days after coming to Glasgow, where they were con-
fined in a roomy and airy cowhouse, and fed on cut
grass, the red cow (the less symmetrical of the two
animals) gave a larger amount of milk than when at
pasture ; the greatest quantity of milk during the week
being 27]- lbs., and the smallest amount being 24£ lbs.,
the mean being 26| lbs. ; there was therefore, in this
case, a decided increase in the amount of milk. With
the other cow the result was quite different ; the quan-
tity of milk appears to have diminished immediately
with the confinement ; the mean of the first seven days
being 22f lbs. It is difficult to account for the great
difference in the result of the produce of the two ani-
mals upon any other supposition than that the constitu-
tion of the one admitted of confinement with less detri-
ment to its system than the other. The causes which
have been previously alluded to when treating of the
characters of the animals may, probably, also supply a
solution to these apparent anomalies. But we deduce
the important inference from these facts, that no correct
generalization can be arrived at from an isolated ex-
ample. During the seven remaining days of the ex-
periment the quantity of milk fell off with both cows :
that of the brown cow subsiding from a mean of 20*

VARIETY OF FOOD ON MILK. 129

lbs. to 22} lbs., and that of the white cow from 22£ lbs.
to 20^- lbs. There was, altogether, a difference in the
daily amount of milk, from the beginning to the end of
the fortnight, in the case of the brown cow of 4 lbs.,
and in the white cow of 2 lbs., although the amount of
food continued the same throughout.

(2.) Influence of Variety of Food on Milk. — The
considerable falling-off depended undoubtedly, in some
measure, upon the confinement to which the animals
were subjected, although on examining the tables it
will be found to be a pretty uniform result, that a change
of food produces an increase in the quantity of milk,
and that after the same diet has been continued for
some days the milk begins to diminish in amount.
There are several exceptions in the tables, some of
which, however, admit of simple explanation. In the
second experiment, which was made with entire barley
steeped, the quantity of milk decreased very rapidly.
In the case of the brown cow there wras a difference
between the milk of the first and last day of the experi-
ment of 5 lbs., and in the white cow of 2£ lbs. This
arose from a quantity of the barley being ejected by the
animals without being digested. Entire malt being
given raised the amount of milk immediately, and the
quantity continued to rise daily till it amounted at the
end of the trial, in the case of the brown cow, to an
increment of the last over the first day's milk of 3 lbs.,
and in the white cow of 4 lbs. We can see at once
why there was an improvement under the malt regi-
men, from the circumstance that, being much more
soluble than the barley, it was not ejected by the ani-
mals ; indeed, none of it was observable in the dung,

130 INFLUENCE OF VARIETY

while a considerable proportion of barley was always
carried to the dung-heap. The second and third ex-
periments do not serve to prove any point in reference
to the dietary of animals, but they may be useful as
evidence to show that the more divided the food is, the
greater is the amount of milk produced. In the fourth
experiment, with crushed barley, the brown cow's milk
decreased li lbs. in sixteen days, and the white cow's
10 oz., or considerably more than half a pound, in the
same period. In the fifth experiment, with crushed
malt, the brown cow's milk declined 2i lbs. in sixteen
days, and the white cow's upwards of 2| lbs. In the
sixth experiment, with a larger quantity of crushed
barley, the brown cow's milk continued to increase up
to the fourth day, and then began to decline ; a similar
result attended that of the white cow. In the seventh
experiment, with molasses and barley, the brown cow's
milk reached its acme or culminating point on the
second day of the trial, and it then continued to decline
till the close of the experiment on the tenth day. With
the white cow, the greatest amount of milk was afforded
on the fifth day, when it began to decline and gradually
diminish till the termination of the trial. In the eighth
experiment, made with barley and linseed, the amount
of milk continued to increase for a longer period than
usual ; the largest quantity given by the brown cow
was on the ninth day, and by the white on the eighth
and ninth days. With the bean meal, in the ninth ex-
periment, the milk continued to increase up to the fifth
day, when the trial closed.* That a change of diet is
necessary for animals which are kept in a confined

* See Diagram, and Miscellaneous Table No. IV.

ON MILK AND ON MAN. 131

condition is proved by the tables previously given, in a
striking manner, and the results now obtained amply
sustain the idea supported by me some time ago in
reference to the dietary of human beings shut up in
poor-houses and places of confinement. It was then
argued that, "in order to retain the human constitution
in a healthy condition, variety of food should be prop-
erly attended to,"* and different species of diet were
suggested as well calculated to supply a series of dishes
to the poor. In the Asylum for the Houseless, and in
the House of Refuge at Glasgow, the recommendations
were followed out ; and, according to the report of the
treasurer, Mr. Liddell, the dinner meals being varied
two or three times every week, " the change in the
dietary routine is much relished by the inmates, and
may have had some effect in the greater degree of
health which has been evident among them of late."f

* Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, p. 39.
t Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, vol. i. p. 40.
The following economical and wholesome dishes are formed on the
principles enunciated, and are used in the public charities of Glasgow

Fish Pudding for Ten Persona.

Quantity Quantity

for One. for Ten.

2 lbs. 0 oz. 20 lbs. 0 oz. potatoes, at \d. per lb.

0 8 5 0 salt fish, at 2d. per lb.

0 0-£ 0 2£ lard or dripping, at Sd. per lb.

pepper ....

2 84 25 2i

s.

d.

0

5

0

10

0

H

0

o*

1

5

Cost, exclusive of fire and cooking, under lfc?. per head. Steep and
boil the fish as long as the saltness and size of the article to be used re-
quires, take out the bones, boil the potatoes in a separate vessel, beat
the whole together. If a fire or oven can be had, brown the top of
the dish.

132 VARIETY OF FOOD.

The analogy subsisting between the physical nature
of human beings and of many of our domestic animals
would lead us to the conclusion, upon physiological
grounds, that their dietary should be conducted upon
precisely similar principles. To prove this by exact
experiments is a point, it will be admitted, of consider-
able importance to the agriculturist, although it may
have been, as might be expected, surmised by many
intelligent observers. Not only, however, is variety
of food requisite for an animal in an artificial state, it
is found also to be beneficial to one in a condition more
akin to that of nature. For it is upon this principle

A Stewed Hash of Sheep's Draught for Ten Persons.

Quantity Quantity

for One." for Ten. s. d.

2 lbs. 0 oz. 20 lbs. 0 oz. potatoes, at \d. per lb. - - 0 fl

0 5^ 3 8 two sheep's draughts, 5d. each - 0 10

0 0 0 8 onions, Id. ; pepper, salt, and flour, 2d. 0 3

2 5J 24 0 16

Cost, exclusive of fire and cooking, full \\d. per head. Boil the
lights for one hour, preserving the water ; hash said lights, liver, and
heart together with flour, pepper, salt, and onions ; then stew the whole
for one hour, using the water in which the lights were boiled. The
boiling and stewing should be done over a very slow fire.

A Mince of Coio's Heart for Ten Persons

Quantity Quantity

for One. for Ten. s. d.

2 lbs. 0 oz. 20 lbs. 0 oz. potatoes, at \&. per lb. - - - 0 5

0 4 2 8 half a heart, Is. 6d. - - -09

0 0 0 8 onions, Id.; pepper, salt, and flour, Id. 0 2

1

Cost, exclusive of fire and cooking, full l^d. per head. Cut up and
wash the heart well. Mince it very small, using onions, flour, pepper,
and salt. Stew the whole over a slow fire for two hours.

EFFECT OF BARLEY AND MALT. 13,3

that we are able to account for the superior influence
of old natural pastures, which consist of a variety of
grasses and other plants, over those pastures which are
formed of only one grass, in the production of fat cattle
and good milk cows. To any one who considers with
attention the experiments which have been detailed,
there cannot remain a doubt in the mind that cattle,
and especially milk cows, in a state of confinement
would be benefited by a very frequent and entire
change in their food. It might not be too much to say
that a daily modification in the dietary of such animals
would be a sound scientific prescription. The effect
of variety of food is exhibited in the frontispiece. In
considering the case of the white cow, wTe find that a
change from barley to barley and molasses increased
the milk in three days from 21 lbs. 6 oz. to 23 lbs. 7 oz. ;
on changing from malt to barley it increased from 19
lbs. 10 oz. to 20 lbs. 11 oz. on the first day ; from bar-
ley to barley and linseed, it increased from 21 lbs. 2oz.
to 23 lbs. 12 oz. on the sixth day ; from barley and lin-
seed to beans, it increased on the first day from 21 lbs.
13 oz. to 23 lbs. 14 oz. Some of these changes can
be traced in the diagram placed as a frontispiece, while,
at the same time, we obtain from it a distinct view of
the relative influence of the different species of food in
keeping up a great or regular supply of milk.

(3.) Effect of Barley and Malt on Milk. — In con-
sidering the influence of barley and malt on the pro-
duction of milk, it is obvious that Experiments II. and
III. offer no data from which conclusions can be drawn,
except to point out the useful practical fact, that grain
should never be given to cows in an entire state, but

12

134 INFLUENCE OF BARLEY AND

that it should always be ground or crushed, and then
steeped before being presented to them. If we com-
pare experiments IV. and V., we find that in sixteen
days 141 lbs. of crushed barley steeped produced in
the brown cow 342 lbs. of milk, and in the white 351
lbs. of milk, and that both animals gained in weight ;
while, again, 168 lbs. of malt produced in the brown
cow 310 lbs. of milk, and in the white 345 lbs. of milk,
during sixteen days ; the former cow gaining some
weight, and the latter losing a little. The quantity of
malt exceeded that of the barley by 27 lbs., and yet
the brown cow gave 32 lbs. less of milk with malt than
with barley, and the white cow only 6 lbs. less milk ;
hence, in the brown cow 100 lbs. of barley produced
as much effect as 131 lbs. of malt, and in the white
cow 100 lbs. of barley were equivalent to 119 lbs. of
malt. Now, as 100 parts of barley, when malted, be-
come eighty of malt, it is obvious that 100 parts of
barley are equal in value to 125 of malt, for 80 : 100
:: 100 : 125. If we take the mean of the result of the
preceding experiment, wTe find that 100 of barley go as
far in producing milk as 125 of malt, 1 19-j-l 31-4-2
= 125. Again, by a mean of three experiments, the
amount of nitrogen in malt was found to be 1*52 per
cent., and that of barley 1*96 per cent., by four experi-
ments, which would make 100 parts of barley equiva-
lent to 128 of malt in nutritive power. These are all
remarkable coincidences of theory and practice, and
cannot fail to convince us that the proportions stated
are very close approximations to the nutritive equiv-
alents of barley and malt, or, in other wrords, that malt
is about one-fifth inferior to barley in its nutritive effects.
In considering the sixth experiment, which was made

ma.lt on milk. 135

for the purpose of comparing the effect of a large quan-
tity of barley with a large amount of malt, it will be
observed, that the experiment commenced when the
amount of milk was declining under the malt regimen,
but that as soon as the barley was given the milk began
to increase in both cows. The weather, however, at
this time, became much warmer than it had hitherto
been. The mean temperature, as exhibited in the table,
became more elevated ; but the numbers in the table
will scarcely give an idea of the stagnant sultry nature
of the atmosphere in the cowhouse, in the immediate
neighborhood of which, in a room without a fire, the
thermometer during the five days stood at 66°, and at
one period of the thirtieth, or first day of the experiment,
rose to 70°. The cattle were, during this period, very
much troubled with flies, which produced, as all agri-
culturists will understand, much agitation and constant
movement. These circumstances are calculated to ex-
plain the loss of weight sustained by the brown cow,
and they account for the fact that the increase of milk
was not so rapid as in the previous barley experiment.
This experiment may be viewed as an interesting ex-
ample of the influence which atmospherical causes
exercise upon the production of milk, and exhibits a
result perfectly in accordance with the experience of
good agricultural observers. From the circumstances
mentioned it is obvious that this experiment should not
be taken apart from the previous barley trial, since the
conditions were somewhat different under which it was
made ; but we have employed it along with the other
trial in striking an average, as in Miscellaneous Table
No. IV. Another effect which came into operation in
this experiment I believe to be, that the quantity of

136 EFFECT OF MOLASSES, LINSEED,

barley was too great, and that more nutritive matter
was given in proportion to the heat-producing matter
than was fitted for the support of the system, and thus
gave occasion to a deteriorating action.

(4.) Effect of Molasses, Linseed, and Beans in the
Production of Milk. — If we examine the Miscellaneous
Table No. IV., we find the mean quantity of milk
afforded by the brown cow, every five days under dif-
ferent regimens, was as follows :— Barley, 107 lbs.;
malt, 97 ; barley and molasses, 101 ; barley and linseed,
102^; beans, 99f. And by the white cow the mean
quantities respectively were, every five days, barley,
109 lbs.; malt, 108^; barley and molasses, 112-J-;
barley and linseed, 115J; beans, lloyV Of all these
articles of food, in both cases, malt gives the smallest
produce. Then comes, with the white cow, barley,
and the other articles increase in effect as they stand
above, bean meal affording the greatest amount of
produce. It will be observed, in examining the bean
meal table, that the milk increased up to the termina-
tion of the experiment ; and that in the case of the
white cow, the quantity yielded exceeded that supplied
by this animal on any previous occasion, except in one
solitary instance under the grass diet. The quantity
of milk given by the white cow on the 18th September,
under the bean regimen, amounted nearly to 25J- lbs.,
thus approaching closely to that afforded by both cows
when they were at pasture three months previously.
This cannot fail to be admitted as an interesting fact,
and is strongly corroborative of the propriety of the
partiality of cow-feeders for bean meal as an article of
nutrition for their stall-fed cattle. If we take a mean

AND BEANS ON MILK. 137

of the produce of the two cows, as previously stated,
we shall find the relative influence of each in the pro-
duction of milk to be as follows : — Commencing with
that which possesses the lowest nutritive power, malt
produces 1 02"66 lbs. of milk ; barley and molasses, 1 06f ;
bean meal, 107'68; barley, 108; barley and linseed, 109.
We think it better to state the mean produce of the
two cows, because it will afford an average of what we
might expect to meet with in feeding a number of cattle
with these various articles of food. A comparison of
the experiments on the two cows, however, fully de-
monstrates that one kind of food will produce a greater
influence on one animal than on another ; and that, as
with human beings, probably, attention should be be-
stowed on what is agreeable to each individual animal,
both in reference to its palate and constitution. For it
should be always borne in mind that stall-fed animals
are not in a natural condition, and that being placed
under artificial restrictions, a due consideration of the
adequate means of counterbalancing the adverse cir-
cumstances of their condition can alone conduce to a
true theory of humane stall-feeding.

(5.) Influence of Quantity of Grain in the Produc-
tion of Milk. — To ascertain the amount of grain best
calculated to afford the largest supply of milk is a prac-
tical point of no small importance to the cow-feeder.
Perhaps from Miscellaneous Table No. IV. the best
solution to this question may be obtained, in reference
to the articles of food employed in the present series
of experiments. In the barley experiment it will be
observed, that when 12 lbs. of barley were given daily,
.ne amount of milk was inferior, in both cows, to tha:

I o*

138 RATE AT WHICH FOOD

obtained when 9 lbs. was the diurnal allowance. This
result seems so decided, in both series of experiments,
that it may almost be considered as established, that
no adequate advantage appears to be attained by push-
ing the supply of barley to a cow beyond the extent of
9 lbs. daily. An increase in the quantity of malt ap-
pears sometimes to increase the quantity of milk ; but,
in general, the same deduction may be made with ref-
erence to malt as to barley, that in a remunerative point
of view, 9 lbs. a day may be considered a larger pro-
portion of malt to supply a cow. It is highly probable,
indeed, that a smaller amount, especially if the animals
were allowed a certain limited degree of exercise,
would be found fully as efficient as a larger quantity.
We have, in the body of the report, endeavored to ex-
plain this upon the physiological principles of digestion,
and to show, that, as ruminating animals more espe-
cially are possessed of great capacity of stomach, an
excess of concentrated food, by failing to effect ade-
quately the purpose which bulky food accomplishes —
of exciting the coats of the stomach to secrete their
digesting fluid — will tend rather to diminish than to in-
crease the result which we desire to gain.

(6.) Rate at ivhich Food is changed into Milk. — As
a variety of views prevail with regard to the period re-
quired by the animal system for the conversion of food
into milk, I endeavored to solve this question by keep-
ing an accurate register of the amount of milk supplied
by a cow, morning and evening. From this register it
appears, that in the course of a month, the brown cow
gave the largest amount of milk in the evening only 6
tirres, while the white cow was in the same condition

IS CHANGED INTO MILK. 139

only 3 times. Itmay be considered therefore certain,
during these experiments, that as a general rule the
greatest quantity of milk was yielded by the cows in
the morning. An example, taken at random from the
register of the white cow's milk, will show the force of
this observation : —

Food.
Aug. 1. Barley and hay

Milk

.

lbs.

oz.

drs.

morning

11

8

15

evening

10

3

14

morning

11

7

1

evening

9

11

9

morning

11

10

15

evening

9

11

9

morning

10

14

5

evening

9

11

3

morning

11

4

10

evening

10

4

8

morning

12

5

7

evening

10

10

11

4. —

5. Barley, molasses, and hay,

6. —

Now, as comparatively a small amount of food is con-
sumed during the night, it is obvious that this superior
amount of milk must be derived from the previous day's
fodder. An observation which was frequently made,
viz. that undigested food did not appear in the dung till
sixteen hours after being swallowed, would tend to de-
monstrate that, during this period at least, absorption
of the nutritive part of the food was going on ; since we
know that along the whole course of the intestinal canal
the soluble food continues to be taken up through the
coats of the viscera.

II. Relative Influence of different Kinds of Food
in the Production of Butter. — In the Table IV. (Appen-

140 SOURCE OF BUTTER.

dix) we have collected the amount of butter produced
by five kinds of food during periods of five days each.
But previous to these trials, thus arranged, the largest
quantity given by the brown cow was under the grass
regimen. The first five days of the experiment yielded
4'93 lbs. of butter, after which the quantity diminished
to the last five days of the trial, when the quantity
yielded amounted to 3*75 lbs., a proportion not supe-
rior to what was produced in some of the subsequent
experiments. The same law does not appear to hold
with reference to the diminution of the butter as per-
tains to that of the milk, when the food has been con-
tinued for some time. We find, on the contrary, fre-
quently the amount increasing towards the close of the
experiment, even when it is continued for ten or fifteen
days. The largest amount of butter was afforded in
the brown cow by crushed barley. During the third
series of five days the amount was 3935 lbs. ; bean
meal gave the next greatest quantity 369 lbs. in five
days ; then comes barley and linseed, 3'689 lbs. during
the first five days ; barley and molasses, 3*63 lbs., and
malt 3" 60 lbs. In the case of the wThite cow the quan-
tity was, beans, 3*76 ; barley and linseed, 3*421 ; crush-
ed barley, 3*376 lbs. ; barley and molasses, 3'26 ; and
malt 3' 126. With both animals we observe that malt
is lowest in the scale, a fact which seems in some
measure to militate against the idea of the origin of
the butter being in the sugar of the food. Be this as it
may, however, although there are many counter argu-
ments in favor of the opinion that sugar affords such a
supply, wre think the Tables II. and III. (Appendix)
tend to show that there is no relation between the but-
ter of the milk and the wax and oil of the food ; since

SOURCE OF BUTTER. 141

frequently, when the oleaginous matter of the food is
small, the butter is more considerable than on other oc-
casions when the reverse happens. Since then the
facts contained in the tables, and the arguments used
in the body of the report, seemed to prove that the. but-
ter cannot be supplied from the oil of the food, it be-
comes an interesting point for the agriculturist to learn
from what element of the food it proceeds. It may
safely be inferred that it must be formed from some
other constituent of the diet by means of the vascular
system, either as a primary or secondary stage. Sugar
affords the most simple element from which it may be
produced, because we now understand how the acid of
butter can originate from sugar ; but even the albumi-
nous principles might afford butter. (Wurtz, Liebig.)
Upon these grounds, then, we can infer that a certain
degree of exercise would be more conducive to the pro-
duction of fat than if the animal is allowed to remain
at rest ; because, as the source of the fat or butter is
dependent on the process of respiration, it is obvious
that the more the function is encouraged within mod-
erate bounds, the greater will be the amount of the oil-
giving principle of the food taken into the system and
converted into fat. We believe that this theoretical de-
duction is perfectly in consonance with the experience
of good observers, who find that box or hammel feeding
is more conducive to health of cattle and cows destined
for the butcher, or for the production of butter, than
close plant-like confinement, which is foreign to the na-
ture of every animal, and at variance with the first prin-
ciples of physiological science.

It appears to result from these experiments, as an
irresistible conclusion, that the fat or butter of the milk

142 SOURCE OF BUTTER.

must be produced at the expense of the calorilient in-
gredients of the food, aided by the presence of the nu-
tritive or azotized principles ; and that the greatest pro-
duct of butter must be obtained when the two ingredi-
ents of the food are present in the best proportions.

THE MUSCLES OF ANIMALS. 143

CHAPTER IX.

MUSCLE OF THE BODY SUPPLIED BY THE FIBRIN OF THE FOOD. FIBRIN

SUPPLIES HEAT TO THE BODY.— ADDITIONAL OR CALORIFIENT FOOD AL-
SO REQUIRED. AMOUNT OF NUTRITIVE AND CALORIFIENT FOOD CON-
SUMED BY A COW PER DAY. THE TRUE LAWS OF DIETING. AMOUNT

OF NUTRITrVE MATTER IN VARIOUS KINDS OF VEGETABLE FOOD.

ARROW-ROOT IMPROPER FOR INFANT FOOD. BUT USEFUL IN DISEASES.

THE LARGEST QUANTITY OF MILK PRODUCED BY FOOD CONTAINING

THE GREATEST AMOUNT OF NITROGEN. GRASS AN EXCEPTION TO THIS

RULE. EXPLANATION OF THIS FACT. NEW FORMS OF BREAD. OAT-
MEAL BREAD BARLEY BREAD INDIAN CORN BREAD PEAS BREAD.

MODE OF BAKING. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FERMENTFD AND UNFER-

MENTED BREAD. UNFERMENTED BREAD RECOMMENDED.

The idea which is now entertained by physiologists,
that the muscular part of the animal frame is derived
from the albuminous constituent of the food, was clear-
ly pointed out by Beccaria in the year 1742. (Histoire
de VAcademie de Bologne, Collect. Acad. xiv. 1.) He
demonstrated that the flour of wheat contained two
characteristic ingredients, which on distillation or di-
gestion afford products totally dissimilar to each other.
One of these, which he termed the starchy part, re-
sembles in its constitution vegetables, and supplies
analogous products. Vegetable substances, he says,
may be recognised by their fermenting, and yielding
acids without exhibiting symptoms of putrefaction. The
glutinous part of flour, on the contrary, resembles ani-
mal matter, the distinguishing feature of which is its
tendency to putrefaction and conversion into a urinous
(ammoniacal) liquid. "So strong," he adds, "is the

144 FIBRIN SUPPLIES HEAT TO THE BODY.

resemblance of gluten to animal matter, that if we were
not aware of its being extracted from wheat, we should
not fail to mistake it for a product of the animal world."
To be convinced that he considered this identical sub-
stance to enter into the constitution of our frames, it is
only necessary to quote his query : " Is it not true that
we are composed of the same substances which serve
as our nourishment ?" The same doctrine has been
taught and practised in our own country, in more re-
cent times, by Dr. Prout, and is now almost universally
received by European physiologists, although the true
authors may not have been always recognised. That
the systems of animals are capable of sustentation by a
supply of fibrinous matter almost alone is obvious from
the history of the primitive inhabitants of the prairies of
America. It is stated on good authority, (Callin,) that
there are 250,000 Indians who live almost exclusively
on buffalo flesh during the year. The fresh meat is
cut in slices of half an inch in thickness across the grain,
so as to have fat and lean in layers, and is hung up ex-
posed to the sun and dried. Upon this food, which is
pounded, and eaten sometimes with marrow, the wild
hordes of the West are not only nourished, but it is ob-
vious that the heat of their bodies is kept up, since they
taste no vegetable food whatever. Fibrin, then, is
calorifient, or capable alone, we infer, of producing ani-
mal heat. Liebig, it is well known, divides the functions
of the food into nutritive and respiratory. I have ven-
tured to employ, instead of the latter term, the expression
calorifient or heat-producing, so as to give a wider
range 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

USE OF CALORIFIENT FOOD. 145

destined for repairing the waste of the body, and for the
production of animal heat. The heat may be produced
by the union of the carbon and hydrogen of the food
with oxygen (the latter gaining admission to the system
by the lungs, stomach, and skin,) or by the condensa-
tion of oxygen during its substitution for hydrogen and
formation of oxygen products. The preceding inference
we also deduce from the experiment in which a dog
was fed for some weeks on the glutinous matter of flour,
(Magendie ;) and it may be further concluded, that fib-
rinous or albuminous matter when given alone is par-
tially converted into carbonic acid, and is removed from
the system during the process' of expiration. But it
would appear, from consideration of the experiments
which have been made on the nutrition of animals with
pure fibrin, that an auxiliary in the production of ani-
mal heat is either indispensable or highly advantageous,
since animals fed on fibrin alone invariably declined in
health, (Magendie,) and the American Indians have a
certain admixture of fat with their dry meat, and are in
the habit likewise of using marrow with it.

The reason why an auxiliary is required for the sup
ply of animal heat appears to be, that the fibrinous
matter which is taken up by the vessels of the intes-
tines and is carried into the blood, requires to pass
through the condition of muscular tissue before it can
be of service as a calorifient agent. The only view
which appears at present to be tenable is, that all or the
greater part of the fibrinous and albuminous matters
which enter the blood displace a certain amount of the
same substances existing in a solid form in the system,
as brain, muscle, &c, and that the displaced matter
undergoes certain modifications ; probably, for example,

146

AMOUNT OF NUTRITIVE AND

it passes into the form of gelatin, and is excreted in the
soluble state of urea, uric acid, and nitrogenous pro-
ducts. It is in passing into these last conditions that
we can alone expect fibrinous matter to give out animal
heat. Time, therefore, is required to produce these
changes. It is to save the system, then, from too rapid
waste, and at the same time to afford an abundant sup-
ply of heat, that the calorifient food is required, and is
always employed by all members of the human family
who have advanced beyond the savage state.

That the amount of calorifient food, in contradistinc-
tion to nutritive food, properly so called, as it has been
well defined by Liebig, is out of all proportion greater
than that required to supply the waste of the solid mat-
ter of the body, is obvious from the following table,
which represents the amount of the ultimate consti-
tuents of the food of a stall-fed cow, consumed during
one day : —

Food.

Fceces.

Consumption.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

Carbon -

11-90

5-10

6-80

Hydrogen -

1*61

062

0-99

Nitrogen -

0-45

0-20

0-25

Oxygen ...

10-74

4-12

6-62

Ash -

1-71

1-09

0-62

26-41

11-13

15-28

The food in this case was grass, (the lolium perenne,
or rye-grass.) If we now calculate the amount of food
which was destined for nutrition by the formulae below,*

* Albuminous matters contain about 53 per cent, of carbon, 7 of
hydrogen, 16 nitrogen, and 24 oxygen. Hence, to obtain the carbon

CALORIFIENT FOOD CONSUMED. 147

we find that it amounts only to 156 lbs.
in a tabular form : —

Nutritive,
lb-.
Carbon ... 0*828

,, as represented

Calorifient.

lbs.
5-982

Hydrogen - - 0-109
Nitrogen - - 0-250
Oxygen - - 0373

0771
6-247

1-560 13000

A true system of dieting would therefore require such
tables for each condition of animals, in order that a
comparison may be instituted between the wants of the
system and the food. If this mode of viewing the
question be correct, then the relation of the nutritive
part of the food absorbed by the animal system in the
preceding experiment is to the calorifient portion as 1
to 8i nearly. By comparing this fact, then, (which is
independent of all hypothesis,) with the different varie-
ties of human food, it is probable that some light may
be obtained in reference to the differences in the rela-
tive proportion of these constituents. Milk, for exam-
ple, the food of the infant mammalia, contains one part
of nutritive to two parts of calorifient constituents, and
in the growing state of an animal the nutritive part of
the food not only supplies the place of the metamor-
phosed solids, but an additional amount of it is required
to increase the bulk of the individual ; and, as we have
already stated that animal heat is generated by the
change or degradation of the fibrinous tissues, it is

•25X53

from the above table we have — — — = -828 lbs. carbon : for the

16

hydrogen — - — = -109 lbs. hydrogen ; for the oxygen - — ^— i

= 0*373 lbs. oxygen.

148 RELATION OF NUTRITIVE TO

obvious that in the nourishment of infant life there is a
supply of heat from the casein, vastly superior to that
afforded by fibrin supplied to full-grown animals, be-
cause the amount taken in proportion to the quantity
of calorifient matter is much greater. If we refer,
again, to the food which is generally employed by the
inhabitants of this country, wheat and barley, we find
by a mean of experiments afterwards to be detailed,
that the average amount of albuminous matter present
in them is 11 per cent., while the quantity of starch and
sugar existing in these substances may vary from 70 to
80 per cent. ; thus affording the proportion of nutritive
to calorifient food as 1 to 7, and upwards. Such food,
it may be inferred, is fitted for the consumption of an
animal which is not subjected to much exercise of the
muscular system, and may be viewed as the limit of
excess of the calorifient over the nutritive constituents
of food. As the demands upon the muscular part of
the frame become more urgent, the proportion of the
azotized or nutritive constituents should be increased,
and this may be extended until we arrive at the point
where the fibrinous matter is equal to the half of the
calorifient, which is probably, in a perfectly normal
physiology, the greatest relative proportion of nutritive
material admissible.

The proportion of the nutritive to the calorifient
constituents of food should therefore vary according as
the animal is in a state of exercise or rest ; and it is
upon the proper consideration of such relations that the
true laws of dieting depend. For calculations of this
nature, tables exhibiting the amount of albuminous
matters in the different articles of food are indispen-
sable, as they afford at a glance the required knowledge,

HEAT-PRODUCING FOOD.

149

The constituents of the flours used as human food are
principally albuminous matter, calorifient matter, water,
and salts ; so that when we have determined the amount
of albuminous substance in the dried condition of the
flour, the remainder may be estimated as calorifient
matter without any sensible error. In the following
table the water has not been removed from the flour
The numbers are the. results of my experiments : —

Albuminous or Nutritive
Matter per cent.

Bean meal -

-

25

36

Linseed meal

-

23

62

Scotch oatmeal -

-

15

61

Semolina -

-

12

81

Canadian flour

-

11

62

Barley -

-

11

31

Maize -

-

10

93

Essex flour

- 10-55 to

11

80

East Lothian flour

- 9-74 to

11

55

Hay -

-

9

71

Malt -

-

8

71

Rice (East Indian)

-

8

37

Sago -

-

3

33

South Sea arrow-root -

-

3

21

Tapioca -

-

3

13

Potatoes -

_

2

23

Starch (wheat) -

-

2

18

Swedish turnips -

-

1

32

The numbers represent the amount of albuminous
matter contained in 100 parts of the various substances
as they occur in commerce. As all of the substances
in the table contain from 5 to 14 per cent, of water,
certain deductions are required, to arrive at the true
amount of calorifient matter. In general, it may be
stated that wheat flour, maize, barley, and beans con-

13*

150 NUTRITION AND HEAT FUO?.I FOOD.

tain from 10 to 14 per cent, of water, while oatmeal
contains 6 per cent., and tapioca, arrow-root, and sago,
from 10 to 13 per cent. In order to arrive at the true
amount of calorifient matter contained in the substances
in the lable, we have only to deduct the amount of al-
buminous substances, with the water and salts, which,
upon an average, amount -together to about 12 to 15 per
cent. Then, by dividing the remainder, or calorifient
matter, by the amount of albuminous substances, we
obtain the relation subsisting between the nutritive and
calorifient constituents. In this manner tables may be
constructed, illustrating the true practice of dieting.

Approximate Relation of Nutritive to Calorifient Matter.

Relation of Nutri-
tive to Calorifient.

Milk. — Food for a growing animal - - - 1 to 2

Beans - - - - - - - 1 — 2£

Oatmeal - - - - - - - 1 — 5

Semolina

Barley

English Wheat Flour. — Food for an animal at rest 1 — 8

Potatoes 1 — 9

Rice - 1 — 10

Turnips - - - - - - - 1 — 11

Arrow-root \

Tapioca > - - - - - - - 1 — 26

Sago )

Starch - - - - - - - - 1 — 40

From this table we are led to infer that the food des-
tined for the animal in a state of exercise should range
between milk and wheat flour, varying in its degree of
dilution with calorifient matter according to the nature
and extent of the demands upon the system. The
animal system is thus viewed as in an analogous con-

FOOD FOR CHILDREN. 151

dition to a field from which different crops extract dif-
ferent amounts of matter from the soil, which must be
ascertained by experiment. An animal at rest con-
sumes more calorifient food in relation to the nutritive
constituents than an animal in full exercise. The food,
therefore, employed by a person of sedentary habits
should contain more calorifient and less nutritive matter
than one whose occupations cause him to take more
exercise. It is to be desired that some light should be
thrown on this subject by careful experiments. The
food of animals and the manure of plants we thus see
afford somewhat of a parallelism. Milk may therefore
be used with a certain amount of farinaceous matter,
such as the class of flours and meals, with probable ad-
vantage ; but the dilution should not exceed the pre-
scribed limits. It is thus that we may explain the fact
of beans, oats, oatmeal, and barley meal being used so
extensively in the feeding of horses. These articles
of food, however, do not suffice alone : calorifient mat-
ter in the form of hay should also be administered.
From this table, likewise, we infer that, as nature has
provided milk for the support of the infant mammalia,
the constitution of their food should always be formed
after this type. Hence we learn that milk, in some
form or other, is the true food of children, and that the
use of arrow-root, or any of the members of the starch
'class, where the relation of the nutritive to calorifient
matter is as 1 to 26 instead of being as 1 to 2, by an
animal placed in the circumstances of a human infant,
is opposed to the principles unfolded by the preceding
table. In making this statement, I find that there are
certain misapprehensions into which medical men are
apt to be led at the first view of the subject. To render

152 ARROW-ROOT IMPROPER FOR CHILDREN.

it clearer, let us recall to mind what the arrow-root
class of diet consists of. Arrow-root and tapioca are
prepared by washing the roots of certain plants until
all the matter soluble in water is removed. Now, as
albumen is soluble in water, this form of nutritive
matter must in a great measure be washed away :
under this aspect we might view the original root before
it was subjected to the washing process, to approximate
in composition to that of flour. If the latter substance
were washed by repeated additions of water the nitro-
genous or nutritive ingredients would be separated from
the starchy or calorihent elements, being partly soluble
in water, and partly mechanically removed. Arrow-
root, therefore, may be considered as flour deprived as
much as possible of its nutritive matter. When we
administer arrow-root to a child it is equivalent to
washing all the nutritive matter out of bread, flour, or
oatmeal, and supplying it with the starch ; or it is the
same thing approximately as if we gave it starch ; and
this is in fact what is done, when children are fed upon
what is sold in the shops under the title of farinaceous
food, empirical preparations of which no one can under-
stand the composition without analysis. Of the bad
effects produced in children by the use of these most
exceptionable mixtures, I have had ample opportunities
of forming an opinion, and I am inclined to infer that
many of the irregularities of the bowels, the production
of wind, &c, in children, are often attributable to the
use of such unnatural species of food. How often are
the ears of parents and nurses distressed with the ago-
nizing cries of the helpless child, and how often are
these symptoms of suffering treated as the effects of ill-
humor, or of causeless peevishness ; when, on the con-

NUTRITIVE EFFECT OF OATMEAL. 153

trary, they have been produced by the improper diet in
many cases with which the child has been supplied !
It should be remembered that all starchy food deprived
of nutritive matter is of artificial production, and
scarcely, if ever, exists in nature in an isolated form.
The administration of the arrow-root class is therefore
only admissible when a sufficient amount of nutritive
matter has been previously introduced into the diges-
tive organs, or when it is inadvisable to supply nutri-
tion to the system, as in cases of inflammatory action.
In such instances the animal heat must be kept up, and
for this purpose calorifient food alone is necessary.
This treatment is equivalent to removing blood from
the system, since the waste of the fibrinous tissues
goes on, while an adequate reparation is not sustained
by the introduction of nutritive food. A certain amount
of muscular sustentation is still, however, effected by
the use of arrow-root diet ; since, according to the pre-
ceding tables, it contains about one-third as much nu-
tritive matter as some of the wheat flours. The ex-
tensive use of oatmeal, which is attended with such
wholesome consequences among the children of all
ranks in Scotland, is, however, an important fact de-
serving of serious consideration ; and, it appears to me,
is strongly corroborative of the principles which I have
endeavored to lay down in the preceding pages. After
the explanations which have been given, it is scarcely
necessary to particularize further the specific nature of
the food to be recommended for the use of children,
A certain admixture of milk, the natural type of the
food, is still to be retained, while the solid matter to be
prepared along with it may be of great variety, such as
bread made into panado, semolina or pounded wheat ;

154 OATMEAL VERY NUTRITIVE.

I believe this kind of food, which is sold in the shops,
to be generally prepared from wheat brought from a
more temperate region than that of this country, in con-
sequence of the amount of nitrogen which I have found
in it. The best American wheat flour, good Scottish
oatmeal, and barley-meal, may all be employed at dif-
ferent times by way of variety, and repeated according
to their agreement with the child's organs of digestion.
The digestion of ail these forms of food containing
starch is greatly promoted by long boiling either with
water or milk, as this process is just so much labor
saved to the intestinal organs. It is thus obvious that
we have a great variety of food fitted for children of
which we know the composition, and that we should
prefer it to any species of compounded stuff the con-
stitution of which we are ignorant. It is a sufficiently
remarkable fact, that oats increase in nutritive power in
proportion to the increase of latitude within certain
limits, while wheat follows an inverse law. Those
who are in the habit of representing mankind as the
"lords of the creation," who take the limited view of
considering all that, we see around us as created merely
for their use, misapplying the thought — "the proper
study of mankind is man ;" and who thus, with the
characteristic vanity of earthliness, follow the footsteps
of Kant, profanely attempting to survey the divine
mind, will discern probably in this curious circumstance
further proofs of their theory, as if to show " how little
can be known."

In the table which contains the amount of albuminous
matter in different kinds of food, a second column, in
accordance with tables of this description, might have
been added, representing 100 parts of beans as equal in

EQUILIBRIUM OF THE FOOD. 155

nutritive power to 1 160 of starch ; but if the views now
explained are legitimate, we see that such a method of
estimating nutritive power is not founded on scientific
principles. In a correct plan of dieting the proper
equilibrium must be retained between the demands of
the animal organism and the constitution of the food,
otherwise, either the nutritive or calorifient system must
be deteriorated. These views sufficiently explain the ex-
periments which have been made upon cows ; in which
the result was unfavorable, when they were fed on po-
tatoes and beet-root in considerable quantities, as both
of these substances contain an excess of calorifient
matter. It is well known to feeders of cattle, that an
animal fed on large quantities of potatoes is liable to
complaints, such as affections of the skin, and also to
loss of weight. These consequences, it may be readily
inferred, are derived from the want of the proper bal-
ance between the elements of the food.

The importance of attention to the proper equilibrium
of the constituents of the food is clearly pointed out in
the following table, from which it is evident, that food
containing the greatest amount of starch or sugar does
not produce the largest quantity of butter, although
these substances are supposed to supply the butter;
but the best product of milk and butter is yielded by
those species of food which seem to restore the equili-
brium of the animals most efficiently. The first
column in the table represents the food used by two
cows ; the second column gives the mean milk of the
two animals for five days ; the third, the butter during
periods of five days ; while the fourth contains the
amount of nitrogen in the food taken by both animals
during the same periods : —

156

EQUILIBRIUM OF THE FOOD.

Milk in

Butter in

Nitrogen

five

five

in Fund in

Days.

Days.

five Days.

lbs.

lbs.

lbs.

I.

Grass -

11.4

3-50

2-32

II.

Barley and hay

107

3-43

3-89

III.

Malt and hay -

102

3-20

334

IV.

Barley, molasses, and hay

106

3-44

3-82

V.

Barley, linseed, and hay -

108

3-48

4-14

VI.

Beans and hay

108

3-72

527

We may infer, from these results, that grass affords
the best products, because the nutritive and calorifient
constituents are combined in this form of food, in the
most advantageous relations. The other kinds of food
have been subjected to certain artificial conditions, by
which their equilibrium may have been disturbed. In
the process of hay-making, for example, the coloring
matter of the grass is either removed or altered ; a por-
tion of the sugar is washed out or destroyed by fer-
mentation, while certain of the soluble salts are re-
moved by every shower of rain which falls during the

curing oi the hay.

Perhaps similar observations are

more or less applicable to the other species of food
enumerated.

The principles which we have been endeavoring to
explain being understood, little difficulty will be expe-
rienced in constructing dietaries, so as to meet the
wants of the animal system under the particular circum-
stances in which it may be placed. By various mix-
tures of one kind of flour, less supplied with azotized
matter, with another which is richer in this material,
the equilibrium of the food which from meteorological
causes prevailing in any particular country, may not
have reached the proper standard, may be effectually
restored. The wheat of England, for example, is infc-

NEW FORMS OF BREAD. 157

•

rior to that of the continent of Europe, and of America,
as appears from the table. It may, however, be im-
proved by an admixture either with foreign flour, or
with oatmeal, barley, beans, or any of those substances
which stand above it in the table ; and in this state it
will be found to form palatable bread. All these spe-
cies of grain owe their nutritive properties to the pres-
ence of fibrin, casein, gluten, and albumen. It is in the
predominance of gluten over the other azotized mate-
rials that wheat owes its superior power of detaining
the carbonic acid engendered by fermentation, and thus
communicating to it the vesicular spongy structure so
characteristic of good bread. By mixing one-third of
Canada flour with two-thirds of maize, a very good loaf
is produced, and when equal parts of flour and oatmeal,
or of barley, or of peasmeal, are employed, palatable
bread is the result. Beneficial effects would probably
follow from the admixture of two or three different
kinds of grain, and many of these forms of bread might
be substituted with advantage for pure wheat flour in
peculiar conditions of the system.

When it is proposed to make a loaf of oatmeal and
flour, the common oatmeal should be sifted so as to
obtain the finest portion of the meal, or it may be
ground to the proper consistence. This should be
mixed then with an equal weight of best flour, Cana-
dian, for example, and fermented. I have not suc-
ceeded in making a good loaf with a smaller amount
of flour than one half, although I have tried it in vari-
ous proportions. If we were to attempt to raise oat-
meal without an admixture with flour, in consequence
of the absence of gluten, that principle which retains
the carbonic acid of fermentation, we should obtain only

14

158 OATMEAL AND MAIZE BREAD,

•

a sad, heavy, doughy piece of moist flour. This form
of bread, it appears to me, and to many who have ex
amined it, would be a great improvement on the hard,
dry oat-cakes, so much used in the more unfrequented
parts of our country, where the inhabitants have
scarcely as yet commenced to share in what are in
other localities considered to be necessaries of life. It
is an observation which all must have made who have
considered the condition of mankind in their various
stages of advancement, that an increase in the physical
comforts, and above all, the improvement in the diet,
are the first symptoms of an onward movement in civil-
ization. It has always appeared to me, that it is in
vain to expect any other condition than that of retro-
gression among people, such as are too abundant in
{Scotland and Ireland, where the clothing is so defi-
cient as to leave the extremities of the body, more par-
ticularly among the female classes, the educators of the
community, in a state of nudity, and wdiere the food is
confined in a great measure to the w7atery potato, or
the dry and unpalatable oat-cake.*

Maize bread may be made of good quality by a
smaller admixture of flour than is necessary in the in-
stance of oatmeal. For this purpose, it should be re-
duced to a fine meal, — finer than is usual in America.
It may then be mixed with one-third its weight of best
flour, and fermented in the usual way. When thus
prepared, the best maize bread is always dark colored,
and cannot be made much lighter than coarse wheat
bread. The shade, however, is somewhat different

* By custom, it becomes more agreeable, but at first it is usually
nauseous, especially to one who is not a native of the country.

BARLEY BREAD, AND BISCUITS. 159

from that of wheat, as it inclines more to a yellow tint.
We may be quite certain, however, when we see what
is called maize bread possessed of a white color, that it
contains much more than one-third its weight of wheat
flour mixed with it. Even when one-half its weight of
wheat flour is added to it, the dark color, characteristic
of maize, is retained. In these cases, of course the
price of the bread must be higher than when a smaller
amount of maize is present.

The whitest bread, however, is made by an inter-
mixture of barley meal and wheat flour. The smallest
amount of wheat flour in this mixture, which I have
found requisite to make a good loaf, was one-half, al-
though the quantity of flour may be diminished accord-
ing to the increase in the richness of wheat in albumin-
ous matter ; an observation which, of course, applies
to the various kinds of bread to which allusion has
already been made. The most successful of these
varieties of bread is, perhaps, that which is made with
equal quantities of peas-meal and flour, so far as re-
spects the exterior aspect. The last, however, is pala-
table, and the specimen is a good example of a whole-
some, condensed vegetable diet, and would probably
answer as a substitute for animal food where the func-
tions of the stomach are not materially impaired.

Upon similar principles, excellent biscuits may be
made, either for rapid consumption, or for preservation,
at a more moderate expense than when they are entirely
composed of wheat flour. When a biscuit is formed
of Indian corn, without any intermixture of wheat, the
color has a yellow tint, which, however, in a great
measure, disappears when wheat flour is added in the
proportion of one-third. When destitute of the pres*

160 FERMENTED AND

ence of wheat, it is not so consistent, and is apt to
crack and break off short. Oat-meal and barley-meal
biscuits may be produced also by mixture with wheat
flour. They require, however, a somewhat larger pro-
portion of the latter, as their particles seem even less
adapted of themselves to cohere than those of the In-
dian corn. An admixture of a variety of meals forms
a very palatable biscuit, as it possesses a sweeter taste,
even without the artificial addition of sugar, than wheat
flour alone. Such biscuits are calculated to keep for
a longer or shorter time, according to the firing to
which they are subjected. In the former case they
are well calculated to keep at sea.

Bread of such a description may be made either by
the usual process of fermentation, or by the action of
hydrochloric acid upon sesquicarbonate of soda. In
many respects the latter process deserves the prefer-
ence, when we consider the chemical nature of the two
methods.

The vulgar idea, which yields the palm of superiority
to the former, does not appear to be based on solid
data, and it seems desirable, that in a case of so much
importance in domestic economy, the arguments in
favor of such an opinion should be subjected to a careful
experimental examination. Judging a priori, it does
not seem evident that flour should become more whole-
some by the destruction of one of its important ele-
ments, or that the vesicular condition engendered by
the evolution of carbonic acid from that source, should
at once convert dough (if it were unwholesome) into
wholesome bread.

When a piece of dough is taken in the hand, being
adhesive, and closely pressed together, it feels heavy,

UNFERMENTED BREAD. 161

and if swallowed in the raw condition, it would prove
indigestible to the majority of individuals. This would
occur from its compact nature, and from the absence
of that disintegration of its particles which is the pri-
mary step in digestion. But, if the same dough were
subjected to the elevated heat of a baker's oven, 450°,
its relation to the digestive powers of the stomach would
be changed, because the water to which it owed its
tenacity would be expelled, and the only obstacle to its
complete division and consequent subserviency to the sol-
vent powers of the animal system would be removed.
This view of the case is fully borne out by a reference
to the form in which the flour of the various species of
cerealia is employed as an article of food by different
nations. By the peasantry of Scotland, barley-bread,
oat-cakes, peas-bread, or a mixture of peas and barley-
bread, and also potato-bread, mixed with flour, are all
very generalby employed in an unfermented form with
an effect the reverse of injurious to health. With such
an experience, under our daily observation, it seems
almost unnecessary to remark, that the Jew does not
labor under indigestion when he has substituted, during
his passover, unleavened cakes, for his usual fermented
bread ; that biscuits are even employed when fermented
bread is not considered sufficiently digestible for the
sick ; and that the inhabitants of the northern parts of
Jndia and of Affghanistan very generally make use of
unfermented cakes, similar to what are called scones
in Scotland. Such, then, being sufficient evidence in
favor of the wholesomeness of unfermented bread, it
becomes important to discover in what respect it differs
from fermented bread. Bread-making being a chemi-
cal process, it is from chemistry alone that we can ex-

14*

162 FERMENTED AND

pect a solution of this question. In the production of
fermented bread a certain quantity of flour, water, and
yeast, are mixed together, and formed into a dough or
paste, and are allowed to ferment for a certain time at
the expense of the sugar of the flour. The mass is
then exposed in an oven to an elevated temperature,
which puts a period to the fermentation, expands the
carbonic acid, resulting from the decomposed sugar and
air contained in the bread, and expels the alcohol formed,
and all the water capable of being removed by the heat
employed. The result gained by this process may be
considered to be merely the expansion of the particles
of which the loaf is composed, so as to render the mass
more readily divisible by the preparatory organs of di-
gestion. But as this object is gained at a sacrifice of
the integrity of the flour, it becomes a matter of inter-
est to ascertain the amount of loss sustained in the pro-
cess. To determine this point, I had comparative ex-
periments made upon a large scale with fermented and
nnfermented bread. The latter was raised by means
of carbonic acid generated by chemical means in the
dough. But to understand the circumstances, some
preliminary explanation is necessary. Mr. Henry of
Manchester, in the end of last century, suggested the
idea of mixing dough with carbonate of soda and mu-
riatic acid, so as to disengage carbonic acid in imita-
tion of the usual effect of fermentation ; but with this
advantage, that the integrity of the flour was preserved,
and that the elements of the common salt required as
a seasoner of the bread was thus introduced, and the
salt formed in the dough.

The result of my experiments upon the bread produ-
ced by the action of hydrochloric acid upon carbonate

UNFERMENTED BREAD. 163

of soda, has been, that in a sack of flour there was a
difference in favor of the unfermented bread to the
amount of 30 lbs. 13 oz., or, in round numbers, a sack
of flour would produce 107 loaves of unfermented bread,
and only 100 loaves of fermented bread of the same
weight. Hence it appears, that in the sack of flour by
the common process of baking, 7 loaves, or 6^ per cent,
of the flour, are driven into the air and lost. An impor-
tant question now arises from the consideration of the
result of this experiment : Does the loss arise entirely
from the decomposition of sugar, or is any other ele-
ment of the flour attacked ?

It appears from a mean of eight analyses of wheat
flour from different parts of Europe by Vauquelin, that
the quantity of sugar contained in flour amounts to 5*61
per cent. But it is obvious that, as the quantity lost
by baking exceeded this amount by nearly one per cent.,
the loss cannot be accounted for by the removal merely
of the ready-formed sugar of the flour. We must
either ascribe this extra loss to the conversion of a por-
tion of the gum of the flour into sugar and its decompo-
sition by means of the ferment, which is highly proba-
ble, or we must attribute it to the action of the yeast
upon another element of the flour ; and if we admit
that yeast is generated during the panary fermentation,
then the conclusion would be inevitable, that another
element of the flour, beside the sugar, or gum, has been
affected. For Liebig has well illustrated the fact that
when yeast is added to wort, ferment is formed from
the gluten contained in it, at the same time that the su-
gar is decomposed into alcohol and carbonic acid. Now,
in the panary fermentation, which is precisely similar
to the fermentation of wort, we might naturally expect

164 UNFERMENTED BREAD.

that the gluten of the flour would be attacked to repro-
duce yeast.

A wholesale and palatable bread may be produced
by the employment of ammoniacal alum, and carbonate
of ammonia, or soda as a substitute for yeast. In this
process the alum is destroyed by the heat : the bread
is vesicular and white, and rises, according to the judg-
ment of the baker, as well as fermented bread. It is
obvious that none of the ingredients added can affect
the integrity of the constituents of the flour ; an oc-
currence which may possibly happen in the preparation
of bread by the common process of fermentation, as has
been shown even to the azotized principles of the flour.
The disadvantage of such a deterioration is sufficient-
ly evident, if we view these principles as the source of
nutrition in flour.

A good method of making un fermented bread is to
take of flour 4 pounds. Sesquicarbonate of soda, (su-
percarbonate of the shops,) 320 grains. Hydrochloric
acid, (spirit of salt or muriatic acid of the shops,) Q\
fluid drachms. Common salt 300 grains. Water, 35
ounces by measure. The soda is first mixed with the
flour very intimately. The salt is dissolved in the
water, and added to the acid. The whole being then
rapidly mixed as in common baking. The bread may
either be baked in tins or formed like cottage loaves,
and should be kept from one to two hours in the oven.
Should the bread prove yellow, it is a proof that the
soda has been in excess, and indicates the propriety of
adding a small additional portion of acid ; the acid
varying somewhat in strength. The same process may
be employed in raising the other mixture previously
recommended.

APPENDIX

166

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APPENDIX.

Table IV.
Ratios of Food, Milk, and Butter.

BE

OWN COW.

Milk
every
five
Days.

Barley.

Grass.

Hay.

Drv
Hay.

Butter

every

fivo Days.

Grain

10

Milk.

Butter

to
Grain.

Barley crushed :
1st live days

2.1 do. -
3d do. -
4th do. -

Malt :
1st five days

2d do. -
3d do. -

Barley & molasses:

1st five days
2d do. -

Barley & linseed :

1st five days
2d do. -

Bean meal :
1st five days

lbs.
115-68

lbs.

42
3 malt

lbs.
240

lbs.
65

lbs.

134

lbs.
3-625

100 to

255
245
159

100 to
1428

105
1105
9576

45
45

60

26

153
132+,

136
117i

111

3-33

3-935

3-26

311-26

150

-

425

304-3

10-525

214

97

95

98-19

42

3 barley

54

GO

-

135$

1294
119

114

108-5
99-9

3-44

3-60
3-25

215

177
163

1514

291-19

156

-

384

322-46

10-29

183

105-18
98-5

Barley.
45
45

Molasses.

12
15

133
137

111-75
11500

3-63
3-63

184
164

1611

233-68

CO

27

270

226-75

7-26

174

101-18
104-00

45
35

Linseed.
15
25

129
138

1H8-3G
114-25

3-689
3-228

167
173

1736

205-18

80

40

235

222-61

6-917

170

99-72

Beans.
56

4

148

124-32

3-69

166

1626

Note. — This and the opposite Table are read as follows: — During
the second five days of experiment the Cow afforded 105 lbs. of milk
and 3-33 lbs. butter, and consumed during that period 45 lbs. barley,
26 lbs. grass, 153 lbs. hay. The ratio of the barley to the milk is as
100 to 255, while the relation of the butter to the barley during fifteen
days is as 100 to 1428, or 100 lbs. of grain would produce 225 lbs. of
milk, and 1428 lbs. of grain would produce 100 lbs. of butter.

APPENDIX.

171

Table IV.
Ratios of Food,, Milk, and Butter.

WHITE COW.

Milk
every
five
Days.

Barley.

Grass.

Hay.

Dry
Hay.

Butter

every

five

Days.

Grain

to
Milk.

Butter

to
Grain.

Barley crushed :
1st five days

2d do. -
3d do. -
4th do.

Malt:
1st five days

2d do. -
3d do. -

Barley & molasses:

1st five days
2d do.

Barley &. linseed :

1st five days
2d do. -

Bean meal -

lbs.
109-68

lbs.
42

lbs.
240

lbs.
65

lbs.
134

lbs.
3-19

100 to

272

242
246
191

100 to
1538

109-33
110-68
107

45
45
56

26

153

172-5

131-75

128-5
144-9
110-67

3-333
3-376

2-843

327-01

146

26

457-25

384-07

8-552

224

106-5

107-5
111-5

Malt.

42

3 barley
54
60

-

150

147
147-5

126

123-48
123-9

3-126

3072
2937

240

198
185

1715

325-5

^56

3 barley-

444-5 J 373-38

9-135

209

112
112-5

Barley.
45
45

Molasses.
12
15

131-75

142 25

110-67
119-49

3-26
3-26

196
189

1800

224-5

90

27

274-00

230-16

6-52

192

113

117-68

45
35

Linseed.

15 117-5
25 1 131-75

98-7
110-67

3-406
3421

188
196

192

1760

230-68

80

40 249-25

209-37

6-827

115-628

56

4 j 146

122-64

3-76

193

1590

Table V.
Amount of Wax and Oil in different Kinds of Food,
and in Dung.

Rye-grass -

Wax per cent.

Barley ------

Oil per cent

201

2-18

Rye-grass hay -

2-00

Malt - - - -

1-37

Moist grass dung -

0-312

Bean meal -

2035

Moist hay dung

0-600

Linseed meal -

4-00

Dry grass dung

2-67

Dry hay dung -

3-82

172

APPENDIX.

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cation shall be subservient to nature— that all medicines must be sanative in their
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Browne's (D. Jay) Field Book of Manures:

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Blake's (Esv. John L.) Farmer at Home.

A Family Text Book for the Country; beng a Cyclopaedia of Agricultural Impl>
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6 Books Published by C. 31. Saxton <£ Co.

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Being a Treatise on their Breeds, Management and Diseases, comprising a full History
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for the Farmer, the Amateur, and the Veterinary Surgeon, with 100 illustrations.
Edited by Ambrose Stevens. $1 25.

Youatt on the Horse.

Youatt on the Structure and Diseases of the Horse, with their Remedies. Also, Prac-
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Youatt and Martin on the Hog.

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Youatt on Sheep;

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American Architect.

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Pedder's (James) Farmer's Land Measurer;

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Chemical Field Lectures for Agriculturists;

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Thaer's (Albert D.) Agriculture.

The Principles of Agriculture, by Albert D. Thayer ; translated by William Shaw and
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This work is regarded by those who are competent to judge, as one of the most
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time that it is eminently practical, it is philosophical, and, even to the general reader,
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Von Thaer was educated for a physician ; and, after reaching the summit of hie pro-
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the citizens; and when he began to lay >ut p jantations and orchards, to cultivate herb-
age and vegetables, the whole country was *>stonished at his science in the art of culti-
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culture, where his fame became known from one end of Europe to the other.

This great work of Von Thaer's has passed through four editions in the United
States, but it is still comparatively unknown. The attention of owners of landed;
estates in cities and towns, &3 well ks those persons engaged in the practical pursuits 0/
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Guenon on Milch Cows;

A Treatise on Milch Cows, whereby the Quality and Quantity of Milk which any Cow
will give may be accurately determined by observing Natural Marks or External In-
dications alone ; the length of time she will continue to give Milk, &c, &c. By M. Francis
Guenon, of Libourne, France. Translated by Nicholas P. Trist, Esq ; with Introduc-
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trated with numerous Engiavings. Price, neatly done up in paper covers, STi cts.
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American Poultry Yard.

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are subject, drawn from authentic sources and personal observation. Illustrated with
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The Shepherd's Own Book ;

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and General Directions in regard to Summer and Winter Management, Breeding, and
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bracing Skinners Notes on the Breed and Management of Sheep in the United States,
and on the Culture of Fine Wool. Price §2.

Allen's (I. F.) .Sural Architecture;

Being a complete description of Farm Houses, Cottages, and Out Buildings, comprising
Wood-honses, Workshops, Tool-houses, Carriage and Wagon houses, Stable?, Smoke
and Ash houses, Ice houses, Apiaries or Bee houses, Poultry bouses, Babbitry, Dove-
cote, Piggery, Barns, and Sheds for Cattle, &c, &c. ; together with Lawns, Pleasure
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naaiental Domestic Animals for the Country Resident, &c, &c Also, the best method
of conducting water into Cattle Yards and Houses. Beautifully illustrated. Price
n 25. ...

Allen's (S. I.) American Farm Book.

The American Farm Book; or, a Compend of American Agriculture, bei- g a Prac-
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Cotton, Tobacco, Sugar Cane, Rice, and every Staple Product of the Uni ed Stales;
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Reemelin's (Chas.) Vine-dresser's Manual.

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and dressing for the table. Beautifully illustrated. Cloth, 50 eta.

The Horse's Foot, and how to keep it Sound.

"With cuts illustrating the anatomy of the Foot, and containing valuable hints on
ehoeing and stable management in health and in disease. By William Miles. Goth,
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Stephens' (Henry) Book of the Farm ;

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neatly one of the best books for a Farmer to possess Cloth, $i.

Allen's (E. L.) Diseases of Domestic Animals;

Bolrig a HistoTy and Description of the Horse, Mule, Cattle, Sheep, Swine, Poultry,
and Farm Dogs, with Directions for their Management, Breeding, Crossing, Rearing,
Feeding, and Preparation for a profitable Market; also, their Diseases and Remedies,
together with full Directions for the Management of the Dairy, and the Comparative
Economy and Advantages of WorkiDg Animals, the Horse, Mule, Oxen, &c. By R
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Saxton's Eural Hand Books, • . . . $1 25

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The Hog, Domestic Fowls, and

The Honey Bee, The Cow.

Saxton's Rural Hand Books, $l 25

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Every Lady Her Owu Flower Gardener, Essay on Manures,
Elements of Agriculture, American Kitcl-eo GardoTer,

Bird Fancier, American Rose Guitarist.

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The Rabbit Fancier, Bee-keeper's Chart,

Weeks oa Bee^ Gteniiairy made Eaay

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Boussingault's (J. B.) Rural Economy,

In its relations with Chemistry, Physics, and Meteorology; or, Chemistry applied
to Agriculture. By J. B. Boussingault. Translated, with Notes, etc., by George
Law, Agriculturist.

" The work is the fruit of a long life of study and experiment, and its perusal
will aid the farmer greatly in obtaining a practical and scientific knowledge of his
profession." $1 25.

Thompson (R. D.) on the Food of Animals.

Experimental Researches on the Food of Animals and the Fattening of Cattle;
with remarks on the Food of Man. Based upon experiments undertaken by order
of the British Government, by Robert Dundas Thompson, M.D., Lecturer on Prac-
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Richardson on Dogs : their Origin and Varieties.

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Liebig's (Justus) Familiar Letters on Chemistry,

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The Dog and Gun.

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Johnston's (J. F. W.) Elements of Agricultural Chemistry

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SAXTON'S

fan!! §oolts of fural anJr Iptstk towing.

.4^ arranged and adapted to the Use of American Farmers.
Price 25 Cents each.

Hogs;

Their Origin and Varieties ; Management, with a View to Profit, and Treatment under
Disease; also, Plaia Directions relative to the most approved modes of preserving their
Flesh. By H. D. Eichardson, author of " The Hive and the Honey Bee," &e.i &0.
"With illustrations— 12mo.

The Hive and the Honey Bee ;

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Rural Economy; also an Account of the Diseases of Bees, and their Remedies, and
Remarks as to their Enemies, and the best mode of protecting the Hives from their at-
tacks. By II. D. Eichardson. With illustrations.

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The Horse;

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The Rose ;

The American Eose Culturist; being a Practical Treatise on the Propagation, Cultiva-
tion, and Management in all Seasons, &c. With full directions for the Treatment of
the Dahlia.

The Pests of the Farm ;

With Instructions for their Extirpation; being a Manual of Plain Directions for tho
certain Destruction of every description of Vermin. With numerous illustrations on
Wood.

An Essay on Manures;

Submitted to the Trustees of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture,
for their Premium. By Samuel H. Dana.

The American Bird Fancier;

•* Considered with reference to the Breeding, Rearing, Feeding, Management, and Pe-
culiarities of Cage and House Birds. Illustrated with Engravings. By D. Jay
Browne.

Chemistry Made Easy.

For the Use of Farmers. By J. Topham.

Elements of Agriculture.

Translated from the French, and Adapted to the use of American Farmers. By F. G.
Skinner.

The American Kitchen Gardener;

Containing Directions for the Cultivation of Vegetables and Garden Fruits. By T. G.
Fessendeo.

10

Books Published by C> M. Sax ton & Co. 11

The Bee Keeper's Chart;

Being a brief practical Treatise on the Instinct, Habits, and Manngement of the Honey
Bee, in all its various Branches, the result of many years' practical experience, whereby
the auf.or has been enabled to divest the subject of much that has been considered
mysterious and difficult to overcome, and render it more sure, profitable, and interest-
ing to every one than it has heretofore been. By E. W. Phelps.

Every Lady Her Own Flower Gardener ;

Addressed to the Industrious and Economical only; containing Simple and Practical
Directions for Cultivating Plants and Flowers: also, Hints for the Management of
Flowers in Rooms, -with brief Botanical Descriptions of Plants and Flowers. The
whole in plain and simple language. By Louisa Johnson.

The Cow : Dairy Husbandry and Cattle Breeding.

By M M. Milburn, and revised by H. D. Eichardson and Ambrose Stevens. With Il-
lustrations.

Wilson on the Culture of Flax;

Its Treatment, Agricultural and Technical; delivered before the New York SMe A gri.
cultural Society, at the Annual Fair, held at Saratoga, in September last, by John Wil-
son, late President of the Eoyal Agricultural College at Cirencester, England.

Weeks on Bees.— A Manual ;

Or, an Easy Method of Managing Bees in the most profitable manner to their owner,
with infallible rules to prevent their destruction by the Moth ; with an appendix by
Wooster A. Flanders.

Reemelin's (Chas.) Vine-dresser's Manual.

Containing full instructions as to location and soil ; preparation of ground ; selection
and propagation of vines ; the treatment of a young Vineyard ; trimming and train-
ing the vines ; manures and the making of wine. Every department illustrated.

Bement's (C. U.) Babbit Fancier.

A Treatise on the Breeding, Rearing, Feeding and General Management of Rabbits,
with remarks upon their diseases and remedies ; to which are added full directions
for the construction of Hutches, Babbitries., &c, together with recipes for cooking
and dressing for the table.

The Horse's Foot, and how to keep it Sound.

With cuts illustrating the anatomy of the Foot, and containing valuable hints on
shoeing and stable management both in health and disease. By William Miles.

The Skilful Housewife,

Or, Complete Guide to Domestic Cookery, Taste, Comfort and Economy, embracing
659 receipts pertaining to Household Duties, the care of Health, Gardening, Birds,
Education of Children, etc., etc. By Mrs. L. G. AbeiJ.

C. M. Saxton & Co., Publishers, 140 Fulton Street, New York.

THE BEST WOEK ON THE HORSE.

PRICE ONE DOLLAR.

C. M. Saxton & Co. have just pubxished

THE STABLE BOOK;

A. Treatise on the Management of Horses, in relation to Stabling,
Grooming, Eeeding, Watering, and Working.

BY JOHN STEWAET,

Veterinary Surgeon, and Professor of Veterinary Medicine in the Andersonian University, Glasgow.

WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS ADAPTING IT TO AMERICAN POOD & CLIMATE

BY A. B. ALLEN,

Editor of tlie American Agriculturist.

ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS.

CONTENTS.

Chap. T. — Stabling, Construction of Stables,! of, — Principles of Feeding', Practice of Feed-
Ventilation of Stables. Appendages of Stables, j ing, Pasturing, Soiling, Feeding at Straw

Chap. If. — Stable Operations, Stable Men,
Grooming Operations of Decoration, Manage-
ment of the Feet, Operations in the Stable.

Chap. III. — Stable Restraints, Accidents,
Habits, Vices.

Chap. IV.— Warmth.

Chap. V. — Food — Articles of, Composition
of, Preparation of, Assimilation of, Indigestion

Yard.

Chap. VI.— Water.

Chap. VII. — Service, General Preparation
for Work, Physiology of Muscular Exertion,
Preparation for Fast Work, Treatment after
Work, Accidents of Work, Repose.

Chap. VIII. — Management of Diseased and
Defective Horses, Medical Attendance.

" I have aimed in this Work TO MAKE PRACTICE THE MASTER OF THEORY, and have
endeavored to arrange the whole subject into divisions which will render every part of it
easily understood, and easily referred to by every one.': — Author's Preface.

"The Horse has been a favorite study with me from childhood, and for twenty years I
have been more or less engaged in breeding and rearing them, on my own farm, and break-
ing and fitting them for market. I also had, during a residence of two years in Europe, the
advantage of Studying the Stable Economy of large Military Establishments, and to inform
myself by personal inspection on the subject of the Horse in general, and particularly his
rearing and stable treatment, and in so doing examined alike the Thorough Bred, the Hun-
ter, the Roadster, the Farm and the Dray Horse. A. B. Allen." — American Editor.

Tlie Horse's Foot, and How to keep it Sound.

WITH ILLUSTRATIOT43.

BIT WILLIAM MILES.

Price : Paper, Twenty-five Cents. Cbth, Fifty Cents.

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