ON THE CHEMISTRY OF FOOD. 



WE are indebted to Professor Mulder, Boussingault, Dumas, 

 and, above all, to Liebig, for a number of elaborate and beauti- 

 ful researches into the chemistry of food ; and to several of our 

 most distinguished feeders of stock, especially to Mr. Lawes, for 

 a series of carefully conducted and highly valuable feeding ex- 

 periments. But though it cannot be denied that these scientific 

 investigations and practical experimental trials have led to the 

 establishment of several important scientific principles, and given 

 us clearer views of the nutritive value of food, it must be con- 

 fessed that our knowledge of the mysterious process of nutrition 

 and the adaptation of the various kinds of feeding-stuffs to par- 

 ticular purposes, is still in its infancy. It would be ingratitude 

 not to acknowledge the services rendered already by the above- 

 mentioned distinguished chemists, and by others who have 

 laboured successfully in the field of animal physiology, but still 

 I am bound to confess at the outset that practice is in advance 

 of science. It may appear, therefore, useless to occupy the time 

 of the reader by the following pages. However, considering 

 that no scientific investigation in which the chemist or animal 

 physiologist engages is more intimately connected with the suc- 

 cessful practice of farming than the inquiry into the processes 

 of nutrition and the practical value of feeding substances, I trust 

 this paper will be found not without interest to the practical 

 man. 



Within the last few years several of our best agricultural 

 chemists have been busily engaged in attempts to ascertain more 

 accurately than before the composition of those substances which 

 the farmer usually employs for the rearing and fattening of 

 stock. Their labours have been eminently successful owing to 

 the more advanced state of chemistry and the more refined 

 methods of analytical processes. Unfortunately the results of 

 their investigations are inaccessible to the majority of practical 

 men, being scattered in isolated fragments in agricultural publi- 

 cations, or deposited in journals specially devoted to physiolo- 



