158 THE SCIENTIFIC FEEDING OF ANIMALS 



and acetate of lime).^ In other respects calcium chlorid is preferable, 

 though it possesses the unpleasant or inconvenient property of being 

 very hygroscopic. For this reason it is not used in the form of the pure 

 salt but in solution. Calcium chlorid is purchasable in tins (calcium 

 chlorid 70 per cent, water of crystallization 30 per cent), and this may 

 be used in making a 1 per cent solution. Cattle, sheep and horses may 

 receive one-half liter (1 quart) daily per 1,000 pounds live weight (about 

 five-sixteenths of an ounce of calcium chlorid). Swine may have 3 pints 

 of the solution per 1,000 pounds live weight, mixed with the feed. For 

 sheep and horses it is best to administer it with the drinking water. The 

 virtues of calcium chlorid solution have been widely arvertised and ac- 

 tively exploited in recent years. It is noted here, however, that this salt, 

 or its solution, has no specific action on the function of milk secretion. 

 The same efifects may be had with any feed that is rich in lime salt, or 

 with other soluble salts of lime. 



Common salt. — Depriving an animal of this single mineral alone will 

 result in death. It is an indispensable nutrient and serves among other 

 purposes as the basis of hydrochloric acid formation In the stomach. The 

 formation of hydrochloric acid Is Influenced by the relative proportions 

 of the potash salts to those of sodium and hydrochloric acid, to the ex- 

 tent that the potash compounds displace the sodium in Its combinations 

 with chlorin and the resulting potassium chlorid (on account of the 

 greater affinity of potash for chlorin) can no longer serve as the basis 

 of hydrochloric acid production In the stomach.* Since feeding stuflFs 

 (especially beets and molasses) contain a greater or less abundance of 

 potash compounds, but are relatively deficient in sodium chlorid (as 

 shown in the table in the appendix), the addition of common salt to 

 rations Is Indicated to promote secretion of gastric juice and digestion. 

 The craving of the organism for common salt when animals subsist on 

 feeding stuffs rich in potash is due, in part, to the fact that the presence 

 of the latter salt results In a certain loss of common salt. As already 

 suggested, the potassium combines with the chlorin of common salt to 

 form potassium chlorid, and the sodium which is liberated combines 

 with the acid radicle of the potash. In this respect carbon dioxid Is of 

 chief importance. The result is that the organism (the blood) contains 

 an excess of potassium chlorid and sodium carbonate. The kidneys, 

 whose function it Is to regulate the composition of the blood, excrete the 

 excess (in this case potassium chlorid and sodium salts) and thus the 

 sodium and chlorin content of the blood is lowered. 



It is a common practice to give animals regular rations of salt. It is 

 probably in rare cases onlv that there is an urgent necessity for this prac- 

 tice (different forms of licking disease). According to investigations of 



3The aprreliensinn that arlmin;":tration of carbonate of lime wifli it'; neutralizinsr effect tipon the 

 "a«tric inice wniiM nffect thf- full nr normal utiHzntinn of nutrient elements has been removed hv 

 the results r,f eNnerlnients of Volh^rrl. A^nlhard fonnri that the iiti1i7atinn of food elements was 

 not affected e> en when tire amount of lime con'^nmed was so creat that 42 prams was daily 

 rxcreted with the feces, thus excluding the iio'isihility of acid reaction at any time. 



« 2 Naa + K2C03=^2 KCI-f-NajCOs. 



