50 Feeds and Feeding. 



increase of 5. 8 per cent, in the case of oxen. * We are taught from 

 these investigations that everything which gives rise to excessive 

 drinking of water by growing, and especially fattening, animals, 

 should be avoided; as, too high stall temperature, too much salt, 

 too great exposure, or supj)lyiug foods carrying too much water. 

 The normal ratio of dry matter in food to water (that in food 

 included) is about 1 : 4 for cattle, and 1 : 2 for sheep. 



II. TJie Fat of the Body. 



74. Body fat from fat in the food. — According to the teachings 

 of Voit, Wolff, and other authorities, the fat stored in the animal 

 body may originate from three sources, viz. : directly from the fat 

 of the food, from the carbohydrates, and from the decomposition 

 of protein. 



The fat of the food which has been acted upon by the digestive 

 fluids in the intestines may be directly stored in the body of 

 animals when supplied in large quantities, as has been con- 

 clusively shown in the case of Carnivora. Experiments in this 

 line have been conducted mostly with dogs, at the Physiological 

 Institute at Munich. Dogs have been starved for a long time 

 until the supply of fat in the body had entirely disappeared, as 

 shown by the increased decomposition of protein after that time. 

 When this stage was reached they were fed for several days 

 large quantities of fat and only a little meat. When dogs so fed 

 were slaughtered, it was found that fat had been deposited in the 

 lungs and in the body tissues in quantities larger than could be 

 accounted for by the decomposition of the meat fed. 



Lebedeflf and Munk* fed a dog mutton suet, and later rape oil, 

 for a long time and in large quantities, and found that the fat 

 deposited in the body was more like mutton suet or rape oil in its 

 chemical properties than normal dog fat. In other experiments 

 this could not be proved for the reason that the fatty matters sup- 

 plied were decomposed more easily in the body of the animal 

 than the fat originating from other sources. 



75. Feeding fatty acids. — Munk^ showed that neutral fat may 

 be formed in the animal body resulting from the feeding of free 



*■ Armsby, IManual of Cattle Feeding, p. 135. 



• Munk, Physiologic d. Menschen, 1888, p. 273. 



• Biedennann's Centralblatt, XIII (1884), p. 106. 



