ANIMAL NUT1UTION. 287 



To facilitate proper digestion of food by the ani- 

 mal or man, it is necessary that, with the nutritive 

 part, substances more bulky, or containing little nu- 

 tritive power, should at the same time be taken into 

 the stomach. An experiment has been made in 

 England on the feeding of horses, which demon- 

 strates this fact most conclusively. Some cavalry 

 horses were selected; and while one part of them 

 received sugar and water alone, the other part had 

 a few pounds of cut straw added to their portion of 

 sugar and drink. Those which received the sugar 

 alone fell away rapidly, while those fed with the 

 sugar and straw throve as perceptibly ; and a repe- 

 tition of the experiment on another set of animals 

 showed the same result. In man, the rich and high- 

 seasoned food, the fine flour and the fat meat, are to 

 the stomach what pure wheat or sugar would be to 

 the stomach of the horse. There is much nutriment, 

 but little that can facilitate digestion. A man swal- 

 lows nourishment enough for half a dozen ; but, in- 

 stead of its producing a good effect, his stomach be- 

 comes disordered, its functions debilitated, and in 

 the midst of plenty he becomes dyspeptic, and in- 

 capable of enjoying anything. The man who lives 

 on common food, sound and sufficiently nutritious, 

 is rarely troubled with the evils that press so heavi- 

 ly on him who, regardless of the law of nature, takes 

 more nutriment and less substance than is consistent 

 with a healthy tone of the digestive powers. 



Perhaps. the best estimate of the time required for 

 the digestion of the various substances used as food 

 by man, and their general effect on the animal or- 

 ganization, is given in the book of Dr. Beaumont, 

 from experiments made on the living subject, and 

 under circumstances more favourable to correctness 

 than are known to have ever before existed. We 

 give below a table of the results obtained by him, 

 not as a mere matter of curiosity, but as furnishing 

 information of the most valuable kind in connexion 



