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CHAPTER. 5. 



Non-nitrogerious elements include starches, sugars, oils, and fat, 

 usually classed under the head of carbonaceous principles. Their func- 

 tions are to supply materials for the production of animal heat ; which is 

 produced by the combustion (in a chemical sense) of the carbon and 

 hydrogen of the food with the oxygen of the air. Secondly, to supply 

 fat, which enters largely into the composition of various substances of 

 the body, and which is stored up or deposited in considerable quantities 

 in different parts of the animal frame. Fat is technically known as 

 adipose tissue. 



Fat is not wholly derived from oleaginous materials, but also from the 

 starches and sugars of vegetable foods, being readily formed from these 

 constituents by chemical decomposition in the animal body. 



Besides nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous elements there are also 

 certain inorganic principles in foods, consisting of water and saline 

 materials, which are necessary for the purpose of keeping up the supply 

 of similar constituents existing in the various tissues of the body. 



From the above description it will be readily understood that horses 

 doing hard and fast work require food containing a large proportion of 

 both Nitrogenous and Non-nitrogenous principles. Not only is the 

 waste of the various tissues accelerated by long-continued exertion, but 

 chemical combustion also takes place more rapidly. 



If the nitrogenous elements are not supplied in sufficient quantities to 

 repair the " waste," the animal will fall away in muscle. 



If the non-nitrogenous elements are not supplied in quantities sufficient 

 to compensate for the chemical combustion, the fat stored up in various 

 parts of the body will be called upon to supply the deficiency, and the 

 animal will become thin. 



