NITEOGENOUS FOOD. 51 



eliminate with sufficient rapidity. We may often 

 witness the baneful effects in the form of diarrhoea, 

 filled legs, and a general " heated " states of the system 

 of the consumption of too much gram, or kulthee. 



An excess of nitrogenous food, such as gram, or 

 kulthee, seems to hasten the oxidation of fat, probably, 

 by inducing a fevered state of the system, in which the 

 temperature of the body is raised above its normal 

 degree. Hence we find that an excess of such food 

 retards the process of getting an animal into a fat 

 condition. 



Fat, Starch, and Sugar in Food. These con- 

 stituents are, by the process of digestion, utilized in the 

 formation of fat ; the first named being directly 

 absorbed, without undergoing any organic change. Its 

 excess is apt, especially during idleness, to cause de- 

 rangement of the liver, from its accumulating to an 

 injurious extent in the cells of that organ ; and also 

 tends to produce fatty infiltration and degeneration of 

 various tissues, rendering them unable to bear the strain 

 of violent exertion. Too large a supply of sugar also 

 acts in a similar, but in a less energetic manner. An 

 excess of starch appears to exert little or no injurious 

 effect ; for what is not required, seems to be harmlessly 

 expelled with the dung. Thus, we see that the bad 

 results of an excess of either fat, sugar, or starch are in 

 a direct proportion to the ease with which they are 

 assimilated. When an animal is in poor condition, the 

 value of these foods is in the same ratio. 



Nitrogenous matters are also capable of forming fat ; 

 for in them we find the necessary carbon, hydrogen, 

 and oxygen. This process of obtaining fat from nitro- 



