THE DISEASES OF CATTLE. 135 



a peculiar analogy between vegetable productions and living 

 animals. Animal and vegetable fibrine — albumen of eggs 

 and the gluten of wheat contain about 15 per cent of nitrogen, 

 so that thej are somewhat identical. If you take 100 pounds of 

 flour and wash it in water, frequently changing the same, you 

 get 15 pounds of gluten. 



" This is the flesh-making principle, and represents 15 pounds 

 of the albumen of flesh. The gluten of flour, casein of cheese 

 and peas, albumen of eggs and the flesh of an animal, contain 

 also a relative amount of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. So 

 '"hat the flesh of animals is already prepared for them in the 

 v^egetable world. The digestive organs of animals merely 

 change the mechanical form and condition of the former, their 

 chemical composition remain about the same." 



EFFECT OF VARIOUS KINDS OF FOOD. 



It is customary in some stables in Massachusetts to feed 

 horses and cows all the year round on what is termed cut feed; 

 composed of cut hay, fine meal, shorts, a small quantity of salt, 

 and considerable^ water ; the whole being mixed together, is 

 served out, ad lUdtum. This kind of food might (and some- 

 times does) agree with animals, but it is not right to feed them 

 year after year on the same, for the reason just set forth. 

 Another reason for objecting to this food is, that in the stables 

 alluded to, we hear of a great many cases of tympanitis and 

 flatulent cholic (diseases somewhat identical), arising, no doubt, 

 from the presence of so large a quantity of water as some per- 

 sons are in the habit of using ; it saturates the food and retards 

 digestion. Not only this, but when dry food, highly charged 

 with water, enters the stomach, the temperature of the latter 

 causes the food to swell, — increase in bulk, — and distends that 

 organ, and also favors fermentation instead of digestion ; hence 

 arises flatulency. I do not, however, mean to contend that 

 such food is at all times the direct cause of indigestion, colic, etc., 

 because many New England stablers are ready to testify that 

 they have fed the same for many years without any apparent 



