96 THEORY OF FEEDING. 



a well-developed layer of fat was found under the skin, 

 and also large deposits of fat on the internal organs. 

 By the use of the knife, 1,100 grams of fat were 

 separated, which resembled mutton suet, and according to 

 chemical analysis must have contained at least 96 per cent, of 

 neutral mutton suet. It is well known that fatty acids are 

 formed from the fat of the food in the digestive processes 

 through the action of the pancreatic juice, and the above 

 experiment therefore practically proves that the fat stored in 

 the bodies of animals may be derived from the fat of the food. 

 Munk's findings have recently been corroborated by Walker, 

 also in experiments with dogs." 



Woody Fibre in passing through the stomach and small 

 intestine suffers but little change, and although it becomes, as 

 we have seen, partly broken up in the large intestine, the pro- 

 cess of its chemical alteration cannot be regarded as digestion, 

 for the products of its decomposition are not nutritious ; hence 

 it has little or no nutritive value for a horse. Its presence in 

 food is, however, an indispensable aid to digestion, apparently 

 by separating the nutritive particles from each other, so as to 

 allow the digestive fluids to readily permeate through the entire 

 mass. Bunge remarks that "cellulose [fibre] is absolutely 

 essential to animals with a long intestinal tract. If rabbits are 

 fed on a diet containing no cellulose, the onward movement of 

 the intestinal contents ceases, inflammation in the intestines 

 ensues, and the animals rapidly die. But if horn-parings be 

 added to the same food, nutrition is normal. These horn- 

 parings are, as Knieriem proved by experiments devoted to 

 that purpose, absolutely undigested, and can therefore only 

 have taken the place of woody fibre in so far as its mechanical 

 properties were concerned." To sum up the matter, we may 

 say that the alimentary canal of a horse is not suited for the 

 digestion of concentrated food ; in other words, that unless 

 the nutritive matter of a horse's food is diluted by a more or 



