The Digestive Organs in Young Sheep. 647 



doctor they had ever seen. The sheep were affected with diarrhoea to 

 a very great extent. He observed that Professor Simonds had not 

 referred to the quantity of milk taken by young lambs. His own 

 impression was that they took a great deal too much, more indeed than 

 their delicate stomachs could well convert into food. Sheep that were 

 highly fed gave a good deal of milk, and their lambs seemed more liable 

 to disease than those of sheep which were lean and yielded less milk. 

 Had the Professor noticed that ? 



Professor Suvionds replied that he had, and was inclined to think 

 that lambs which had the opportunity of going to their dams as often 

 as they liked would rarely be found to glut themselves. It was not 

 because the animal had taken a glut of milk that they got these large 

 accumulations of curd. In reality it was often seen that when an 

 ordinary quantity of milk had been taken the cui'd accumulated in the 

 stomach. 



The Chairman said, with regard to the digestibility of milk, it was 

 generally believed that rich milk was easier of digestion than weak. 



Professor Voelcker desired to make a remark or two on the question 

 how far food of the same description — for instance, tui'nips or grass 

 — at diiferent periods of their growth affected the health of cattle, 

 by producing either constipation or diarrhoea. There was a very great 

 difference in the effects which food of the same kind produced. He 

 believed that the land on which the food was grown had much to do 

 with this ; for he knew practically that there were some soils which 

 invariably grew produce that was termed "scoui-iug food." Such 

 were the scouring lands of Somersetshire, which lay upon the lias, 

 and almost invariably had the effect of producing diarrhoea. This 

 varied with the season, and it was remarkable that in hot summers 

 the land became more scoui-ing than at the colder periods of the year. 

 It has been observed that the period most dangerous to the sheep was 

 when they were put on clover or natiu-al grasses, at the time the 

 herbage was making rapid gi'owth. Thus, when warm weather set in 

 suddenly, after much rain had fallen in the early part of the year, 

 there was a rapid development of leaf, and the produce became very 

 sour. He believed that this was not merely attributable to the pre- 

 sence of much water — an opinion entertained by practical feeders — 

 but was also due to the imperfect condition — the want of elaboration 

 in the crude juices of the plant. Having examined that subject 

 he had constantly found that a large amount of crude nutritive matter 

 was present. It was not true, as was sometimes maintained, that unripe 

 food contained a deficiency of nitrogenous matter ; the very reverse 

 was the case ; if the food were too rapidly grown they would inva- 

 riably find much nitrogenous matter in it, but not in the form of 

 albumen, of caseine, or of any definite chemical compound : they 

 found it — he could hardly say in what condition, but ho could tell 

 them in what condition it was not — it was not as nutritive albumen, or 

 as nutritive gluten, or in any form which was commonly designated 

 flesh-producing — it was unelaborated crude feeding material. Then 

 there was also present in this rapidly-developed young produce a very 

 much larger proportion than usual of saline matters which were taken 



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