THE FEEDING OF STOCK. 307 



abstaining from close confinement and giving air and exercise, moderately in the yard or limited 

 enclosures, and feed with a variety of elements. Frequent changes of food favor the appetite, 

 or preserve it, and gives the organs power to digest a larger quantity, and put on more fat in 

 a given time than if confined to one kind of food. Probably the dietetic rules adapted to the 

 wants of man will apply to the domestic animals ; variety in his case is conceded : when 

 variety is forbidden, as in our penitentiaries, the health suffers. We may .see, especially, some 

 of the effects of this confinement, in the fatal effects of epidemics, when they visit establishments 

 of this kind : the mortality is much greater than in other places. The confinement of animals 

 in dark stalls is objectionable, on the score that light is essential to full health. Animals, 

 however, consume less food, and fatten more, when light is excluded for a time, than when 

 exposed to light. But the exclusion of light is inadmissible only for short periods : more 

 disease, ill health and liability to epidemical disorders exist in narrow lanes of cities, and the 

 darkened sides of dwellings, than those which enjoy the full and cheerful light of day. 

 Much is known of the influence of physical agents on man, but little knowledge has been 

 acquired of the influence of these agents on animals. Enough is known, however, to satisfy 

 an intelligent man that close confinement is prejudicial to good health, and of course to the 

 production of healthy fluids. 



General scmmaey of some of the foregoing principles relative to the feeding of stock. 



1. Food contains two classes of bodies, the calorifient and the nutrient : to the former belong 



sugar, starch, gum, wax, and amilaceous bodies in general j to the latter, albumen, fibrin, 

 or albuminous bodies, and all those which are deposited in the tissues. 



2. The calorifient bodies contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen ; the latter, carbon, hydrogen, 



oxygen, and nitrogen, besides which are found sulphur, phosphoruS; iron, lime, magnesia 

 and the alkalies. 



3. The calorifient. as their name implies, are expended in keeping the system warm ; or, in 



other words, are burnt, and pass off in the form of carbonic acid, while the nutrient are 

 formed into membranes, muscles, nerves and bones. 



4. The living system imdergoes continual changes, as waste and decay, which is in proportion 



to the natural temperature of the system, and the exercise and action it is subjected to. 



5. The young waste more rapidly than tlie old ; they also restore the wasted materials more 



rapidly, or when the forces are more energetic. 



6. Notwithstanding this fact, the young are incapable of generating heat in their bodies, to the 



extent which the adult being generates, and hence it always requires aid in keeping up 

 the required temperature, as the body of the mother, the application of wool, cotton, or 

 culinary heat. And hence, animals who are kept for breeding should rarely be left to 

 wander from those who are their protectors, especially in seasons when they would be 

 subjected to malign influences. 



