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DIAGRAM 
 
 EXHIBITING IN POUNDS AND OUNCES THE AMOUNT OF MILK PRODUCED BY 
 THE WHITE COW DAILY BY FIVE DIFFERENT KINDS OF FOOD. 
 
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 The Black Line represents the Malt. 
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 " —""—»""« Barley & Molasses. 
 
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 DAYS, 
 
EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES 
 
 ON 
 
 THE FOOD OF ANIMALS, 
 
 FATTENING OF CATTLE. 
 
 WITH REMARKS ON 
 
 THE FOOD OF MAN. 
 
 BASED UPON EXPERIMENTS UNDERTAKEN BY ORDER OF 
 THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 
 
 ROBERT DUNDAS THOMSON, M. D. 
 
 LECTURER ON PRACTICAL CHEMISTRY, UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW. 
 
 FROM THE LAST LONDON EDITION. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 C. M. SAXTON AND COMPANY, 
 
 AGRICULTURAL BOOK PUBLISHERS, 
 
 No. 140 Fulton Street. 
 
 1S5G. 
 
x Jo 
 
 <<>A* 
 
 , s 
 
 
 sy iraiibibr iruu 
 
TO 
 
 DR. THOMAS THOMSON 
 
 AND 
 
 BARON LIEBIG, 
 
 TO WHOM THE AUTHOR OWES HIS ACQUAINTANCE 
 WITH THE SCIENCE OF CHEMISTRY, 
 
 ®l)t0 dontribtttton 
 
 TOWARDS THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SUBJECT OF TH8 
 
 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. — Aruecdote. — 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 IY. 
 
 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 Process of Malting . . . .79 
 
CONTENTS. 11 
 
 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 Oalorifient 
 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 1G6 
 
 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- 
 
 2 
 
14 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 tbat 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 slate ; 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 
 
IS 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 ol 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 Milk in Periods 
 of 5 Days. of 5 Days. 
 
 Entire barley and grass, - -j^P 8, ^J 11 ** 
 
 qo 
 Entire malt and grass, ■ -j °" . . 
 
 Crushed barley, grass, and hay 
 
 1091 
 109j 
 110 
 
 1061 
 Crushed malt and hay, - --£96 107^ 
 
 lllj 
 
 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|- 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 havirig 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 act ; 
 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 puard 
 
 o 
 
 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- 
 
24 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. i. 
 
 ,6 
 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 
 * are estimated to be in length twenty-six feet, or from 
 
SMALL INTESTINES. 27 
 
 four to five times the length of the body ; and the great 
 intestines one length of the body, or about six feet/' — 
 (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 Afghanistan in 1839-40, p. 66) that 
 on two occasions during the passage he witnessed the 
 intoxicating effects of food. To induce the Punjaubees 
 
32 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 which chew the cud. — 
 {Ruminant animals, Jig. 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 
 chew r ed while the animal is at rest. This is termed 
 
OF DIGESTION. 33 
 
 chewing the cud, and is a proof that the food has un- 
 dergone little change in the first stomach. In the fine 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 compound stomach of ruminants, (from Carus 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. 411,*) which is the true digest- 
 
 * Outlines of Comparative Anatomy, by R. E. Grant, M. D., &c. 
 Part IV. p. 410. 
 
34 CONVERSION OF FOOD INTO 
 
 ing 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, $ 
 
 Malt and hay 
 
 Ditto - 
 
 Barley, linseed, ) 
 and hay, £ 
 
 Before 
 
 Drinking. 
 
 After 
 Drinking. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 1010 
 
 998^ 
 1023J 
 
 991 
 
 lbs. 
 1038 
 
 1041 
 
 1048£ 
 
 1055 
 
 lbs. 
 
 28 
 
 42£ 
 25~ 
 
 63 
 
 WHITE COW. 
 
 Food. 
 
 Weight of Cow. 
 
 Water 
 
 Swallow- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Before 
 
 After 
 
 ed. 
 
 
 
 
 Drinking. 
 
 Drinking. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 12 Aug. 
 
 Barley, molasses 
 and hay, 
 
 i 
 
 1052 
 
 1106 
 
 54 
 
 26 — 
 
 Malt and hay 
 
 - 
 
 1028 
 
 1051 
 
 23 
 
 4 Sept. 
 
 Barley, linseed 
 and hay, 
 
 1 
 
 1056 
 
 1104 
 
 48 
 
 13 — 
 
 Beans and hay 
 
 
 1060 
 
 1087 
 
 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 11 '27; 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 hesitation 
 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. 
 
 r Fibrin. 
 
 Curd or Casein. < 
 
 1 Albumen. 
 1 Casein. 
 
 1 Albumen. 
 Casein. 
 
 Butter. 
 
 [Glutin. 
 Oil. 
 
 Coloring Matter. 
 Fat. 
 
 Sugar. 
 
 Chloride of potassium. 
 
 Chloride of sodium. 
 
 Sugar, starch. 
 
 Sugar] 
 
 Phosphate of soda. 
 Phosphate of lime. 
 Phosphate of magnesia. 
 Phosphate of iron. 
 
 > Ditto. 
 
 ► Ditto. 
 
 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 farther 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- 
 rials 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 
 
 UTON 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 
 
46 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 inu 
 
 * These views are strongly supported by the very ingenious experi- 
 ments of Mr. Hutchinson, whose researches on respiration constitute a. 
 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 
 
 5 
 
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 he 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 \1\ 
 lbs., while that of the white cow only declined from 
 22 lbs. to 19| 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, it 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. 
 
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 57 
 
 Proxi??iate 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 
 
 5 040 
 
 I 135 
 
 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 - 
 
 8719 
 
 87-35 
 
 Butter - 
 
 370 
 
 
 Sugar - 
 
 4-35 
 
 
 Casein - 
 
 4-16 
 
 
 Sol. Salts - 
 
 015 
 
 0156 
 
 Insol. Salts - 
 
 0-44 
 
 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 
 
 1-48 
 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 
 
 37-03 
 
 9*78 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 Table exhibiting the Amount in Pounds of Carbon, §c. 
 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" 
 
 18| 
 
 1070| 
 
 67 
 
 8 
 
 54J- 
 
 i4 
 
 902^ 
 
 94£ 
 13 
 
 93^ 
 
 1671 
 
 161| 
 21 
 
 6,i 
 148" 
 
 m 
 
 1070| 
 
 64 
 
 n 
 
 52" 
 
 m 
 
 860 
 
 97£ 
 13* 
 
 4 
 96 
 
 5 
 210| 
 
 1426| 
 
 1049 
 
 377 
 
 1426| 
 
 1000 
 
 426| 
 
 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 91 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 8f 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 6'76 
 
 Ash - - - - 0-33 
 
 Water ----- 1350 
 
 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 cow 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 calorifient constituents. 
 
 Of the Constituent of the Grass which 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 l'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 dung 
 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 ----- 63 
 
 Amount of wax consumed by the cows - 5T0 
 
 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 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 
 
 
 
 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 peginin, 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 - - $ 
 
 Pegmin. 
 
 Pyropin. 
 
 52-07 
 
 7-00 
 
 14-31 
 
 26-62 
 
 I. 
 53-33 
 7-52 
 14-50 } 
 
 24.65 C 
 
 ii. 
 
 53-50 
 
 7-66 
 
 38-84 
 
68 
 
 COMPOSITION OF RYE-GRASS. 
 
 I. Analysis of hay made at Giessen by Dr. Will : 
 
 the species of grass is not mentioned. 
 II. Hay grown in the neighborhood of Strasburg in 
 France, analyzed by M. Boussingault : the name 
 of the grass is omitted. 
 III. Analysis of Lolium perenne, as previously given 
 and used in the present experiments. 
 
 Carbon 
 Hydrogen 
 Nitrogen - 
 Oxygen - 
 Ash 
 
 I- 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 45-87 
 5-76 
 
 1 4155 
 
 6-82 
 
 1 
 
 45-80 
 5-00 
 1-50 
 
 38-70 
 9-00 
 
 4541 
 5-93 
 1-84 
 
 39-21 
 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 
 23-81 
 
 8123 
 
 18-77 
 
 69-00 
 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 101-3 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. 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 1 atom sugar - 
 
 2 atoms alcohol 
 
 4 atoms carbonic acid 
 
 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 DRYING. 73 
 
 obvious. By this means all the constituents of the 
 grass are retained m 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 j 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 
 
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 : — 
 
 
 Inches. 
 
 
 Glasgow - 
 
 213 
 
 
 London - 
 
 24-0 
 
 
 Edinburgh - 
 
 245 
 
 
 Berwickshire - 
 
 32-5 
 
 ( Abbey St. Bathans, 
 I 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 
 
 $ 800 feet above the 
 I 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 p .rticles 
 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 ason 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 barn-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 
 
 43-28 
 
 12-51 
 
 16-89 
 
 - 
 
 312 
 
 - 
 
 trace 
 
 - 
 
 3-61 
 
 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 
 
 7* 
 
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 PU^DUCES 
 
 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. 
 
 Dllfig. 
 
 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 > 
 
 . 
 
 1201 
 
 Casein 5 
 
 
 
 In several determinations the water in the milk of 
 both cows was never found to vary more than a few 
 tenths when p^ooerly 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 J 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 17} 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 maybe 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 
 
 41-64 
 
 
 
 
 Hydrogen - 
 
 6-65 
 
 6-02 
 
 
 
 
 Nitrogen - 
 
 1-91 
 
 1-81 
 
 2'01 
 
 1-98 
 
 1-95 
 
 Oxygen 
 
 42-24 
 
 38-28 
 
 
 
 
 Ash - 
 
 3-09 
 
 2-79 
 
 
 
 
 Water 
 
 - 
 
 9-46 
 
 
 
 
 100- 
 
 100- 
 
 
 
 
 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^ "91 per cent, nitrogen. 
 
 3d, 0'923 gramme gave 0*288 gramme platino sal 
 ammoniac=r98 per cent, nitrogen. 
 
 4th, 0'834 gramme gave 0*262 platinum salt=l'95 
 nitrogen per cent.* 
 
 * For these two experiments I am indebted to Dr. Bottinger. 
 
 8 
 
86 INFLUENCE OF 
 
 5th, 11*13 gave 1*57 platinum=2'01 per cent, ni- 
 trogen. 
 
 Calculating from the composition of the grass and 
 barley, we find that the two cows consumed 304 j 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=l - 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 
 
 8-41 lbs. dry milk. 
 
 100 lbs. of hay and malt produce 
 
 7-08 ditto. 
 
 I. Butter : 
 
 
 100 lbs. hay and barley produce - 
 
 1-82 lbs. butter. 
 
 100 lbs. hay and malt produce 
 
 2-07 ditto. 
 
 
 Loss. 
 
 I. Weight of cattle : 
 
 lbs. lbs. 
 
 Weight of cattle before barley ex- 
 periment ... . 2030 
 Weight of cattle after ditto - 1989 41 
 " " before malt ditto 2044 
 
 after ditto - 2022 22 
 
 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' (36 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. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 
 4393 
 7-00 
 1-50 
 
 46-30 
 1-27 
 
 44-780 
 7-060 
 1-620 
 
 44-763 
 
 1-777 
 
 1-19 
 
 1-26 
 
 42-44 
 6-64 
 1-11 
 
 43-08 
 1-68 
 5-05 
 
 100- 
 
 100- 
 
 
 
 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 
 
 025 
 
 Oxygen 
 
 214-88 
 
 82-57 
 
 13231 
 
 611 
 
 Ash - - - 
 
 34-22 
 
 21-80 
 
 1242 
 
 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- 
 ically bruised. 
 
92 
 
 INFLUENCE OF CRUSHED 
 
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ON MILK AND BUTTER. 
 
 97 
 
 Experiment VI. — Larger Quantity of Crushed Barley 
 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 
 calorifient 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 
 
 9 
 
 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 
 
 4611 
 
 
 
 
 Hydrogen - 
 
 6-02 
 
 665 
 
 
 
 
 Nitrogen - 
 
 1-81 
 
 2-01 
 
 1-91 
 
 1-98 
 
 1-95 
 
 Oxygen 
 
 37-66 
 
 41-06 
 
 
 
 
 Ash - - - 
 
 341 
 
 4-17 
 
 430 
 
 3-27 
 
 
 Water 
 
 9-46 
 
 
 
 
 
 too- 
 
 loo- 
 
 
 
 
 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 
 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 42-44 
 
 43-930 
 
 44-78 
 
 
 
 Hydrogen - 
 
 6'64 
 
 7-000 
 
 7-06 
 
 
 
 Nitrogen - 
 
 111 
 
 1-290 
 
 1-26 
 
 1-504 
 
 1-62 
 
 Oxygen - 
 
 43-08 
 
 46-510 
 
 45-13 
 
 
 
 Ash - - - 
 
 1-68 
 
 1-270 
 
 1-77 
 
 
 
 Water 
 
 505 
 
 
 
 
 
 too- iioo- 
 
 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. 
 
 - 123 106 
 
 - 119 112 
 
 N. 0. 
 
 2 82 
 90 
 
 Difference 
 
 ■\ 
 
 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 69 
 
 33 21 
 
 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 
 
 34-46 
 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. 0. 
 
 Starch - - - 12 10 10 
 Sugar - - - 12 12 12 
 
 
 
 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 H 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- 
 
 . . ,53 xa 
 bon united to the nitrogen by the simple formula — [g - - 
 
 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, '- ! -^— = °' 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 lungs, but also throughout 
 the entire capillary system of the skin, at least in mair 
 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 } 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^ 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. 
 
 Bailey - I. II. III. IV. V. VI. 
 
 Inorganic matter, 
 
 percent. -417 3'87 3"27 320 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 - 323 
 
 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 
 
 - 35-34 
 
 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|- 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 barley 
 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 : 134; 
 
 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 600 
 
 Saline matter - - - 0*48 
 
 Organic matter - - - - 12 # 52 
 
 19-00 
 
 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* 
 
1 14 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 
 
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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 - - •■ - - - 80 6 
 
 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 - - - - - - 21 9 
 
 1000 lbs. of hay, barley, and linseed - - 215 
 
 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 
 
 I. Butter: 
 
 
 
 1000 lbs. 
 
 barley and molasses produce of butter 
 
 645 
 
 1000 lbs. 
 
 ditto linseed - 
 
 65'7 
 
 1000 lbs. 
 
 bean meal - 
 
 70-0 
 
 By examining the 4th Table in zlppendix, 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 BEANS 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. 
 
 
 Linseed. 
 
 Beans. 
 
 
 Dried at 
 212°. 
 
 
 Dried at 
 
 212°. 
 
 Carbon - 
 
 4251 
 
 4955 
 
 40-76 
 
 45-59 
 
 Hydrogen 
 
 622 
 
 7-26 
 
 
 
 Nitrogen 
 
 3-78 
 
 441 
 
 413 
 
 461 
 
 Oxygen - 
 
 26-35 
 
 3068 
 
 
 
 Ash - - - 
 
 6'94 
 
 8-10 
 
 3-22 396 
 
 Water - 
 
 1420 
 
 
 1060 
 
 Table of the Composition of the Ash of Linseed and 
 Bean Meal. (Horse Bean.) 
 
 Silica - 
 
 Phosphoric Acid - 
 
 Sulphuric Acid 
 
 Chlorine 
 
 Lime - 
 
 Peroxide of Iron - 
 
 Magnesia 
 
 Potash - 
 
 Soda - 
 
 Linseed. 
 
 Bean Meal. 
 
 34-85 
 
 1312 
 
 25-22 
 
 3526 
 
 2-85 
 
 1-29 
 
 trace 
 
 1-75 
 
 6-95 
 
 5-18 
 
 323 
 
 1-80 
 
 8-04 
 
 903 
 
 1685 
 
 2315 
 
 2-22 
 
 942 
 
 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 butler 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 caul ion 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 10J 
 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, 6J 
 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 (Id- 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 ba 
 equivalent to about twelve imperial gallons. 
 Stephens' Book of the Farm, 111. 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 274- lbs., and the smallest amount being 24f 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 263 
 
VARIETY OF FOOD ON MILK. 129 
 
 lbs. to 22} lbs., and that of the white cow from 22| lbs. 
 to 2(H 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 was a difference 
 between the milk of the first and last day of the experi- 
 ment of 5 lbs., and in the white cow of 2h 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 r 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, w T ith crushed barley, the brown cow's milk 
 decreased lj 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 2^ lbs. in sixteen 
 days, and the white cow's upwards of 2i 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."t 
 
 * 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. oz. 20 lbs. oz. potatoes, at \d. per lb. 
 
 8 5 salt fish, at 2d. per lb. 
 
 0£ 2£ lard or dripping, at 8d. per !b. 
 
 pepper - 
 
 2 84 25 2i 
 
 i7* 
 
 » d. 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 04 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 Cost, exclusive of fire and cooking, under l£i. 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. oz. 20 lbs. oz. potatoes, at \d. per lb. - -05 
 
 5£ 3 8 two sheep's draughts, 5d. each - 10 
 
 8 onions, 1 d. ; pepper, salt, and flour, 2d. 3 
 
 2 5£ 24 16 
 
 Cost, exclusive of fire and cooking, full lfrf. 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 Cow's Heart for Ten Person? 
 
 Quantity Quantity 
 
 for One. for Ten. s. d. 
 
 2 lbs. oz. 20 lbs. oz. potatoes, at \d. per lb. - - - 5 
 
 4 2 8 half a heart, Is. 6d. - - 9 
 
 8 onions, Id. ; pepper, salt, and flour, Id. 2 
 
 1 4 
 
 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. 133 
 
 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 m 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 while cow, we 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 bar]ey 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, we find that 100 of barley go as 
 far in producing milk as 125 of malt, 119+131-^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 words, that malt 
 is about one-fifth inferior to barley in its nutritive effects. 
 In considering the sixth experiment, which was made 
 
MALT 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 circumstance's 
 mentioned it is obvious that this experiment should not 
 be taken apart from the previous barley trial, since the 
 conditions were somewhat different under w r hich it was 
 made ; but we have employed it along with the other 
 trial in striking an average, as in Miscellaneous Tabic 
 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, 99£. And by the white cow the mean 
 quantities respectively were, every five days, barley, 
 109 lbs.; malt, 108^-; barley and molasses, 112J; 
 barley and linseed, 115J; beans, 1 15 T 6 ^. 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 102*66 lbs. of milk; barley and molasses, 106f ; 
 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 tiia; 
 
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 which 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 IiNTO MILK. 
 
 139 
 
 only 3 times. It may be considered therefore certain, 
 daring 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 
 
 2. — 
 
 3. — 
 
 4. — 
 
 
 
 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 
 
 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 3*69 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 white 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, we 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. (Wiirtz, 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 harnmel 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 calorifient 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- 
 
 60 REQUIRED. AMOUNT OF NUTRITIVE AND CALORIFIENT FOOD CON- 
 SUMED BY A COW PER DAY. THE TRUE LAWS OF DIETING. 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 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, (Catlin,) 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, 
 
 13 
 
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 : — 
 
 Carbon - 
 Hydrogen - 
 Nitrogen - 
 Oxygen - 
 
 Ash r 
 
 Food. 
 
 Faeces. 
 
 Consumption. 
 
 lbs. 
 11-90 
 
 161 
 
 0-45 
 10-74 
 
 1-71 
 
 lbs. 
 5-10 
 0-62 
 0-20 
 412 
 1-09 
 
 lbs. 
 6-80 
 0-99 
 025 
 6-62 
 0-62 
 
 26-41 
 
 1113 
 
 , 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 1 56 lbs 
 
 , as represented 
 
 in a tabular form 
 
 : — 
 
 
 
 Nutritive. 
 
 Calorifient. 
 
 
 lb*. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Carbon - 
 
 - 0-828 
 
 5-982 
 
 Hydrogen 
 
 - 0-109 
 
 0-771 
 
 Nitrogen 
 
 - 0-250 
 
 - 
 
 Oxygen 
 
 - 0373 
 
 6-247 
 
 1-560 13-000 
 
 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 8|- 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 
 
 . , -828X7 inn H , j ; . -109X24 
 hydrogen — — — = -109 lbs. hydrogen ; for the oxygen 
 
 = 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 Nutritiv 
 
 
 
 Matter per cent. 
 
 Bean meal - 
 
 - 
 
 25-30 
 
 Linseed meal 
 
 - 
 
 23-02 
 
 Scotch oatmeal - 
 
 - 
 
 1501 
 
 Semolina - 
 
 - 
 
 1281 
 
 Canadian flour 
 
 - 
 
 11-02 
 
 Barley - 
 
 - 
 
 11-31 
 
 Maize ■ 
 
 - 
 
 10-93 
 
 Essex flour 
 
 - 10-55 to 11-80 
 
 East Lothian flour 
 
 - 974 to 11-55 
 
 Hay - 
 
 - 
 
 9-71 
 
 Malt ---- 
 
 - 
 
 8-71 
 
 Rice (East Indian) 
 
 - 
 
 8-37 
 
 Sago - 
 
 - 
 
 3-33 
 
 South Sea arrow-root - 
 
 - 
 
 321 
 
 Tapioca - 
 
 - 
 
 313 
 
 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 FROM 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 table, w r e 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 lo Calorifient. 
 
 Milk. — Food for a growing animal - - - 1 to 2 
 
 Beans ---- = ---1 — 2| 
 
 Oatmeal -.-„-- = 1 — 5 
 
 Semolina ) . „ 
 
 Barley S 
 
 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 
 
 dilion 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 calorifient 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 
 
 Irary, 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 all 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 Food in 
 
 
 
 Days. 
 
 Days. 
 
 five Days. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 I. 
 
 Grass - - - - 
 
 114 
 
 3-50 
 
 2-32 
 
 II. 
 
 Barley and hay 
 
 107 
 
 3-43 
 
 3-89 
 
 III. 
 
 Malt and hay - 
 
 102 
 
 3-20 
 
 3-34 
 
 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 
 
 5-27 
 
 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 of 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 infe- 
 
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 oilier 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 where the food is 
 confined in a great measure to the watery 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 generally 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 
 India and of Afghanistan 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 
 
 peel 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 
 unfermented 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 unfermented 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,) 65 
 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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170 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Table IV. 
 Ratios of Food, Milk, and Butter. 
 
 BROWN COW. 
 
 
 Milk 
 every 
 five 
 Days. 
 
 Barley. 
 
 Grass. 
 
 Hay. 
 
 Dry 
 Kay. 
 
 Butter 
 
 every 
 
 five Days. 
 
 Grain 
 
 to 
 Milk. 
 
 Butter 
 
 to 
 Grain. 
 
 Barley crushed : 
 1st five 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 
 110-5 
 95-76 
 
 45 
 45 
 60 
 
 26 
 
 153 
 
 139| 
 
 132* 
 
 136 
 
 111 
 
 3-33 
 
 3-935 
 
 3-26 
 
 311-26 
 
 150 
 
 - 
 
 425 
 
 364-3 10-525 
 
 214 
 
 97 
 
 96 
 98-19 
 
 42 
 
 3 barley 
 
 54 
 
 60 
 
 - 
 
 135a 
 
 129| 
 119 
 
 114 
 
 108-5 
 99-9 . 
 
 3-44 
 
 3-60 
 3-25 
 
 215 
 
 177 
 163 
 
 1514 
 1611 
 
 291-19 156 
 
 384 322-46 
 
 10-29 
 
 185 
 
 105-18 
 98-5 
 
 Barley. 
 45 
 
 45 
 
 Molasses. 
 12 
 15 
 
 133 
 
 137 
 
 111-75 
 115-00 
 
 3-03 
 3-63 
 
 184 
 164 
 
 203-68 
 
 90 27 270 
 
 226-751 7-26 | 174 
 
 1 
 
 101-18! 45 
 104-00 35 
 
 Linseed. 
 15 
 25 
 
 159 
 136 
 
 1 ' 
 
 108-36 3-689 
 114-25 3-228 
 
 167 
 173 
 
 1736 
 
 205-18 
 
 80 
 
 40 
 
 235 
 
 222-61 6-917 
 
 170 
 
 99-72 
 
 Beans. ; 
 56 4 | 148 
 
 12432 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 [V. 
 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 
 
 3-072 
 2-937 
 
 240 
 
 198 
 185 
 
 1715 
 
 325-5 
 
 156 
 
 3 barley 
 
 444-5 
 
 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 
 
 1760 
 
 230-68 
 
 80 
 
 40 249-25 
 
 209-37 
 
 6-827 
 
 192 
 
 115-628 
 
 56 
 
 4 1 146 
 
 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 « 
 
 1 
 
 
172 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
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 Elements of Agriculture. 
 
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 Wilson on the Culture of Flax ; 
 
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C. M. Saxton & Co., Publishers, 140 Fulton Street, New York. 
 
 THE BEST WORK OH THE HORSE 
 
 PRICE ONE DOLLAR. 
 
 C. M. Saxton & Co. have just published 
 
 THE STABLE BOOK; 
 
 k Treatise on the Management of Horses, in relation to Stabling, 
 Grooming, Feeding, Watering, and Working. 
 
 BY JOHN STEWART, 
 
 Veterinary Surgeon, and Professor of Veterinary Medicine in the Andersonian University, Glasgow, 
 
 WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS ADAPTING IT TO AMERICAN EOOD & CLIMATE 
 BY A. B. ALLEN, 
 
 Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED V/ITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 Chap. I. — Stabling, Construction of Stables,] of, — Principles of Feeding-, Practice of Feed- 
 
 Ventilation of Stables. Appendages of Stables. 
 
 Chap. It.— 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 
 
 ing, Pasturing, Soiling, Feeding at Straw 
 Yard. 
 
 Chap. VI —Water. 
 
 Chap. VII. — Service, General Preparation 
 for Work, Physiology of Muscular Exertion, 
 Preparation for Fast Work. Treatment aftei 
 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 
 myseif 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. 
 
 The Horse's Foot, and How to keep it Sound 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 BY WILLIAM IILE§. 
 
 ^v^CentsQ C&th. Fifty 
 
 Price : PaperOTventf^E vgSCentsW CMth, Fifty Cents. 
 

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