CHEMISTRY OF FOODS AND FEEDING. 1179 



genous constituents; namely, carbohydrates and fat. As fat, 

 however, is a much more concentrated food than carbohydrates, 

 it is customary to reckon each pound of fat as equal to two arid 

 a half pounds of carbohydrates. 



To illustrate. Suppose that a given quantity of a certain 

 food contained one pound of albuminoids and seven pounds of 

 carbohydrates, we would then say that its albuminoid ratio was 

 one to seven, usually written thus : 1 : 7, by which would be 

 meant that for every pound of albuminoids in the food there 

 was seven pounds of carbohydrates. But suppose the food con- 

 tained to each pound of albuminoids four and a half pounds of 

 carbohydrates and one pound of fat. Its ratio would then still 

 be 1 : 7, as the one pound of fat would be equal to two and a 

 half pounds of carbohydrates, which, added to the four and a 

 half pounds of carbohydrates, would be equal to seven. 



Strictly speaking, a pound of fat is only equal to two and 

 forty-four one hundredths pounds of carbohydrates, but in prac- 

 tice the proportion of one to two and a half is used, as being 

 more convenient and sufficiently near the truth. 



A food is said to have a high albuminoid ratio when the 

 albuminoids are in large proportion, and low when the reverse is 

 the case. Thus cotton cake has the high albuminoid ratio of 

 1:1$. while wheat straw has the low ratio of 1 : 64 . 



The following table gives the albuminoid ratio of the leading 

 articles of food, calculated from the digestible portion of the 

 food only: 



Cotton cake decorticated, ...... 1 



Cotton cake undecorticated, , . . 1 



Linseedcake, ........ 1 



Beans, ......... 1 



Peas, . 1 



Wheat bran, 1 



Oats 1 



Barley, ......... 



Indian corn, ........ 1 



Clover hay, . ....... 1 



Meadow hay, ........ 1 



Turnips, ......... 1 



Mangels, ......... 1 



Potatoes; ......... 1 



Wheat straw ... 1 



1.5 



1.8 



2.3 



2.4 



2.9 



4.2 



5.5 



7.6 



9 



5.9 



8 



6.2 



8 



10.6 



64.4 



