118 RINDERPEST. 



salt. This chloride is found in the blood, gastric juice, urine, 

 bone, cartilage,* &c. It exists also as a necessary element of 

 vegetable food; seeds and grain containing the smallest 

 amount, while green vegetables and meadow grasses (espe- 

 cially Lolium 2)crenne, or common rye grass) hold it in largest 

 proportion.t The common experience, of those who are en- 

 gaged in the rearing of domestic animals, is familiar with 

 the necessity of an artificial supply of this element of the 

 blood, in order to obtain their highest perfection ; to secure 

 thrift in growth, or even the appearance of health. Bous- 

 singault's experiments are very happy and instructive. He 

 took six oxen and divided them into two lots ; — to the one 

 he gave salt at stated intervals, while he entirely refused it 

 to the other, l^o perceptible difference in the appearance of 

 these lots was, on the most careful scrutiny, manifest at the 

 end of fourteen days ; but at the close of the month it was 

 revealed to the most unpracticed eye. In both lots the skin 

 under touch was sound and fine ; the hair of those, to whom 

 salt had been supplied, was smooth and shining; of the others 

 dull and staring. At the end of a year the hair of the second 

 lot was matted, or in places had fallen out, and the animals 

 were listless and inanimate, while the first lot had the sleek 

 and fine coat of stall-fed beasts, and proved their high con- 

 dition in frisky and rampant attitudes. It seems strange on 

 first thought to learn besides, that the supply of salt had 

 exercised no influence on the quantity of flesh, fat, or, again 

 in other trials, of milk obtained ; but the marvel disappears 

 when we understand that salt plays no part in the flesh-form- 

 ing economy, but, according to Liebig, merely neutralizes 



" the injurious action of the conditions which must be united in the 

 unnatural state of animals fed or fattened in order to produce flesh." 



A clearer statement is, that 



" salt serves in the organism to assist and promote the general changes 

 without taking a share by its elements in the formative process." 



It appears that a chemical action takes place in the system, 

 by which chlorine (not found in chemical combination in any 



* Simon's Chemistry, Vol. I, p. 3. t Licbig's Familiar Letters, p. 4S6. 



