Food and Feeding. 169 



diminishes the digestibility of the bran and 

 makes it a laxative. If, however, the animal 

 is allowed to make his own bran mash, by 

 giving it to him dry, he will be obliged to 

 thoroughly masticate it ; for if he does not do 

 so, his mouth will not obtain a quantity of 

 saliva sufficient to enable him to swallow 

 it. When the bran has been ground into 

 a fine state by the teeth and saturated 

 with saliva, it will be in the best possible 

 condition for reception and digestion by 

 the stomach. Although a bran mash may 

 be regarded as a laxative medicine, dry bran 

 is a highly digestible and nutritious food, as I 

 have proved with hundreds of horses on sea 

 and land. More than thirty years ago, Colonel 

 John Anderson, A.V. D., directed my atten- 

 tion to this fact, which Miantz, Grandeau and 



