AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY AND GEOLOGY. 199 



sheep, conceived the idea of converting into farina not only the straw of wheat and other 

 grains, but of hay, trefoil, lucern, sainfoin, etc. His efforts are said to have been perfectly 

 successful, and his discovery arrived at, not by chance, but by long experiment and research. 

 The aliment which he has produced is said to be a complete substitute for bran. It is given 

 to sheep and lambs, who consume it with avidity, and may be given to all other graminivorous 

 animals as a grateful and substantial food. We know in this country that the mere chopping 

 of straw adds greatly to its powers by facilitating mastication and digestion. We may believe 

 that a more perfect comminution of its parts will produce a corresponding effect, and extend 

 very widely the uses of straw and other fodder as a means of feeding our domestic animals. — 

 Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 



On the Relative Value of different kinds of Meat for Food. 



M. Marchal, of France, took twenty grammes of the muscle of the pig, ox, sheep, calf, 

 and hare, which contained neither sinews nor muscular tissue, nor adhering fat, except what 

 naturally exists between the muscular fibres, and dried them in a water-bath for several 

 days, and thus ascertained the loss which each sustained by desiccation : — 



FIRST EXPERIMENT. SECOND EXPERIMENT. 



Solid matter. Water. Solid matter. Water. 



Pork 29-45 70-55 30-25 69-75 



Beef 27-70 72-30 27-50 72-50 



Wether mutton 26-55 73-45 26-35 73-65 



Chicken 26-35 73-65 26-30 73-70 



Veal 26-00 74-00 25-55 74-45 



According to these numbers, we should arrange the meats in the following order of their 

 relative nutritive powers: pork, beef, mutton, chicken, veal. This order is, however, not 

 the true one; because the leanest meat contains a certain amount of fat; and because this 

 substance is not so important an article of food as the pure muscles, it is necessary to ascer- 

 tain how much a certain quantity of meat contains before we can judge properly of its rela- 

 tive nutritive value. M. Marchal accordingly treated the dried flesh with ether to dissolve 

 out the fat, and obtained the following results: — 



Fat §oluble Pure muscle 



in ether. insoluble in ether. 



Beef 2-54 24-95 



Chicken 1-40 24-87 



Pork 5-97 24-27 



Mutton 2-96 23-38 



Veal 2-87 22-67 



The last table shows that the true order should be beef, chicken, pork, mutton, and veal ; 

 a result which experience confirms. It may, however, be remarked, that there is consider- 

 able difference between the same kind of meat derived from different animals, and that the 

 same amount of two different kinds of beef-broth, both containing the same amount of water, 

 may have different nutritive values. — Comptes Rendus de V Academic 



Liebig on the Improved Manufacture of Bread. 



It is known that the vegetable gluten of the various kinds of grain undergoes a change 

 when moist; in a fresh condition it is soft, elastic, and insoluble in water, but in contact with 

 water it loses these properties. If kept a few days under water, its volume is gradually in- 

 creased until it dissolves, forming a thick mucilaginous fluid, which will no longer form a 

 dough with starch. The ability of flour to form a dough is essentially lessened by the property 

 of vegetable gluten to hold water, and its change to the state, for example, in which it is con- 

 tained in animal tissues, in meat and in coagulated white of egg, in which the absorbed water 

 does not moisten dry bodies. The gluten of grain, in flour not recently ground, undergoes a 

 change similar to that which it suffers when in a wet state, for the flour absorbs moisture 

 from the air, being in a very high degree a water-absorbing substance; gradually the 

 property of the flour of forming dough is lessened, and the quality of the bread made there- 



