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xMONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



properly combined, strange as it may appear 

 to some, it is of all these materinls, when 

 properly uuitefl, that our daily food is com- 

 posed. The great office of Chemistry, as ap- 

 plied to this department of human knowledge, 

 is to point out the peculiar wants of animal 

 bodies, and how these are duly supplied in 

 the food we and they daily consume. Anat- 

 omy informs us that, like the vegetal )le, an 

 animal bodji is composed of two portions : the 

 organic particles form a considerable portion 

 of the flesh or softer tissues of the body ; and 

 also an uiorganic portion, which Prolessor 

 Berzelius, of Stockholm, Guy Lussac, Vau- 

 qaelin, Thenard, and Fourcroy, with Dr. Ma- 

 gendie, of Paris, and other experimental chem- 

 ists, have demonstrated also to constitute a 

 small portion of the softer parts ; but it is in 

 the bones, which constitute the skeleton, that 

 they are principally found ; and these are di- 

 rectly derived in the hrrbivora (or vegetable- 

 feeding aninaals) from the vegetable diet upon 

 which they subsist, while the carnivora (or 

 flesh-eatmg tribes) obtain it indirectly fi-om 

 the blood and flesh of the herbivorous animals 

 upon which they prey. 



These remarks naturally lead us to a proper 

 consideration of those substances which form 

 chiefly the food of those animals which are 

 bred, reared and supported by the formei-, 

 either for agricultural labor or as food for man, 

 and in many cases for both — strange to say, 

 they are principally herbivorous in their na- 

 ture. Examine chemically, therefore, any 

 article which they consume — no matter 

 whether it is wheat, beans, peas, cabbage, 

 caiTots or turnips — we shall soon find that, 

 besides water, it has gum, sugar, starch, and 

 a considerable quantity of woody fibre, in 

 union with a sm;ill portion of a fatty matter ; 

 all these coustiUients, as I observed m my 

 former Lectares, will be found to be com- 

 posed only of three elements, viz oxygen. 

 carbon and hydrogen, which exist combined 

 in nearly the same proptjrtions. But we hke- 

 wise find that there are many other substsuices 

 contained in vegetables whicli contain nitro- 

 gen, and this is in addition to those elements 

 which compose starch, gum, &c., and are 

 known to the chemist by the appellations of 

 gluten, vegetable albumen, and casein. Now 

 li we take a small quantity of fine wheaten 

 flour, and mix it with water into a paste, and 

 well wash it upon a sieve, by pouring a stream 

 of cold water over it while it is kneaded with 

 the hand, all the sugar, starch and gum will 

 pass away through the sieve with the water, 

 and the substance left behind will resemble 

 bird-lime, being of an equally tenacious na- 

 ture ; this is, therefore, the gluten which the 

 wheat contained; and when dried, the water 

 it possessed being evaporated, it n^embles 

 horn, being a hard, brittle mass, and if burnt 

 it emits a similar unpleasant eflluvia to burnt 

 horn, feathers, or other animal matter. The 

 gluten which is obt:iined from peas, beans, or 

 the fibrin and vegetable albumen i>rocured 

 from the expressed juices of the carrot, turmp 



(1023) 



or cabbage, all possess analogous properties 

 to those found in wheat, with this exception, 

 that they are all soluble in cold water, where- 

 as the gluten which is obtained from v/iieat is 

 not. If we submit these substances to the 

 test of chemical analysis, we speedily discover 

 them to be all composed of the same constitu- 

 ents, and also that they are likewise identi- 

 cally the same as those composing the flesh 

 and blootl of animals generally ; but you must 

 please to bear in mind that this remarkable 

 identity does not consist in their containing 

 azote or nitrogen in combination with oxygen, 

 carbon and hydrogen, in the same or nearly 

 the same proportions as in animal flesh and 

 blood, but it extends to the existence of a 

 small quantity of sulphur and phosphorus, 

 which is found to be associated with the mus- 

 cular flesh fonning one of the soft tissues of 

 the animal. Hence we may very properly 

 assert, as a physiological axiom, that the blood 

 and flesh are, by the Great Author of Nature, 

 found actually ready prepared and elaborated 

 in the vegetable. The plant it is which elab- 

 orates and duly prepares all the elements of 

 water, carbonic acid, and ammonia, which 

 constituent particles are found to be identi- 

 cally the same as the muscular animal flesh ; 

 consequently, the'animal has nothing more to 

 do than to apply them to his own use for the 

 purposes of nutrition, secretion, and die vivi- 

 fication of life. 



The following Table, adopted by my tal- 

 ented friend, Professor Gyde, of Painswick, 

 will give the reader an idea of the actual 

 identity of composition existuig between these 

 substances: 



TABLE I. 



Every animal body momently undergoes 

 some physiological change ; every motion, 

 thought and action is of course perfonned at 

 the expense of some, and many of almost ev- 

 ery part of the body ; these incessant altera- 

 tions and action cau.se the great demand for 

 fcjod. which Nature constantly requires to re- 

 ]iair the waste that is continually taking place. 

 You may speedily ascertain the truth of this 

 fact, by noticing its illustration m those ani- 

 mals who have long been kept without food, 

 or had but a scanty supply, or where it did 

 not possess suflicient nutritious properties; 

 and also in those animals who have undergone 

 great exertion and bodily fatigue, when con- 

 trasted with those but little fatigued, and 

 whose food was good in quality and suflicient 

 in quantity. The fine horses formerly at- 

 tached to our well-apjiointed coaches, before 

 the constriiction of railroads and the employ- 

 ment of giant steam-power, and which vehi- 

 cles will ere U)ng only be remembered by bc- 

 uig reconled in the pages of history among 



