604: PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G". 



phosphoric acid is concerned, and, generally speaking, the more 

 complex the rations are, the greater the chance of all necessary 

 mineral matter being supplied. 



But, in cases where it is impracticable to use a mixed diet, it is 

 possible to artificially supply the deficiencias in mineral matter by 

 the direct addition of saline substances. 



The writer has devoted considerable time and attention to this 

 matter, and has designed a preparation which has already proved 

 itself, on the large scale, to be of great value in improving the health 

 and condition of horses, cattle, and poultrj- kept in confinement. 



Administered along with the ordinary food, it ensures that the 

 animals receive an ample supply of all necessary mineral matter, 

 and at the same time it connects the unsuitable ratio between phos- 

 phorus pentoxide and lime, which, as has been shown, so generally 

 obtains in cereal foods, and which leads to mal-nutrition of the bones. 

 With poultiy kept in confinement, the points raised are of particular 

 importance, and the writer is convinced that the nutrition and health 

 of such birds are frequently injured from the causes just discussed. 

 The employment of the artificial preparation undoubtedly remedies 

 this, as has been proved by direct experiment. 



Pigs, too, are often kept and fed in such a way that they suffer 

 from the deficiencies alluded t-o, and no doubt their health would 

 be improved if the preparation were used. 



The Food of Man. 



The considerations discussed as to the importance of the ash 

 constituents of food stuffs to domestic animals and poultry apply 

 in some degree to human food, though in this case the greater 

 diversity of the latter usually pi-events the effects being so marked. 

 But, even with human beings, cases must frequently occur, in which, 

 through lack of sufficient variety of food stuff's in the diet, deficiencies 

 in the supply of certain inorganic elements must be felt and the 

 health consequently injured.* 



It is quite possible that many ailments are induced by the im- 

 possibility of the body finding a sufficient supply of the substances — 

 some of them of rare occun-ence in plants — necessarv^ to form the 

 normal secretions which take part in digestion and other vital 

 processes. 



Given an adequate supply of the organic compounds of foods — 

 viz., albuminoids, fats, and carbohydrates — the body itself, if its 

 secretions be normal, can manufacture these into the various complex 

 oi'ganic substances which foi-m muscle, tendons, and other tissues, but 

 unless the materials necessury to form digestive secretions are sup- 

 plied in the food, this process cannot proceed perfectly. 



The need for a supply of some of these relatively insignificant 

 materials is already recognised, e.g., the absolute necessity of a 



*_Sherman[Lake Placid Corf. Home Econ., Proc. 9 (1907)] states that, "In the 

 selection of food and the planning of dietaries, at least as mncli attention should be 

 paid to the amounts of calcium, phosphorus, and iron as to the amount of ])rotein." 

 This refers to huinan food, and shows that in America attention is now beinu' directed 

 to this important subject 



