446 



SPORADIC DISEASES. 



also suffer and die from fatty degenerations, and old carriage 

 and other ftivourite horses die from the same cause, when 

 pampered and fed with carbonaceous food. 



Accumulations of the flesh-forming or nitrogenous elements in 

 the blood, and their non-elimination, cause the development of 

 many blood diseases, as has been already, and. will be further 

 shown. For exam.ple, over-feeding on linseed cake induces a 

 septic condition of the blood. Analyses of oil-cake have shown 

 that it contains over 22 per cent, of nitrogenous materials, 

 whilst dried wheat contains only 12'47 per cent, of albuminous 

 compounds. Again, decorticated cotton cake contains a much 

 larger per-centage of flesh-forming matters than even linseed 

 cake, and the proportion of oil is higher than in the best linseed 

 cake. The following are the analyses of the two cakes : — 



DECORTICATED COTTON CAKE. 



Average analysis of seven Samples. 



(VOELCKER.) 



Water, .... 9-28 



OU, 16-05 



Allniminous compounds, or flesh- 

 forming matters, . . 41 '25 

 Gum, mucilage, and digestible fibre 



(heat-producing substances), 16 '45 



Celluline, indigestible fibre, . 8 '92 



Mineral matters, ash, . . 8*05 



100-00 



The nitrogen of the food is not all assimilated in the system, 

 and a large portion passes away with the excreta : on this 

 account the dung produced by cake-fed stock is particularly 

 valuable. Should anything occur to interfere with the functions 

 of the excretory organs, the nitrogenous compounds accumulate 

 in the system, and there set up a variety of diseases more or 

 less grave and important. It will thus be seen that great care 

 and discrimination are to be exercised in feeding stock upon 

 highly nutritious food; and provided the feeder has an eye 

 more to the maintenance of the health of liis stock than to the 

 richness of his manure, he will bear this in mind. 



Whilst over-feeding leads to the development of disease, 

 deficiency of food leads to no less grave results; and this 



