Hi A Manual of Veterinary Physiology. 



fully explained in the chapter dealing with the Liver. It 

 gives a port-wine red, and not a blue, reaction with iodine. 

 In the form of starch it cannot be utilized by the system, it 

 has, therefore, to become converted into sugar ; in its trans- 

 formation it behaves exactly as vegetable starch, first be- 

 coming changed into dextrin and then into glucose, not 

 into maltose as starch is in the intestinal canal. The 

 ferment of the salivary glands and pancreas can rapidly 

 induce this change. 



Cellulose is an important consideration for the veterinary 

 physiologist, owing to the considerable proportion in which 

 it exists in the food of the herbivora. Cellulose forms the 

 cell-wall and woody fibre of plants ; if subjected to the 

 action of boiling dilute sulphuric acid it becomes converted 

 into dextrin. It is generally believed that cellulose can- 

 not be digested, but there can be no doubt that it is 

 utilized by herbivora, though in what way it becomes con- 

 verted we are not prepared to say. The cellulose ferment 

 has yet to be discovered, but doubtless the large stomachs 

 of the ox and the capacious intestines of the horse are in- 

 tended for its dissolution and assimilation. Bunge states that 

 experiments have proved that 60 per cent, to 70 per cent, of 

 the cellulose disappears in the intestinal canal, and that 

 sheep were capable of digesting 80 per cent, to 40 per cent, 

 of the cellulose of sawdust and paper when mixed with hay. 

 This authority also lays stress upon the important advant- 

 ages derived from the use of cellulose, in mechanically stimu- 

 lating the coats of the intestines and promoting natural 

 peristalsis; all animals with a long intestinal canal need it. 

 and if it lie withheld from rabbits they die. 



Gums. A substance termed animal gum is found in 

 mucus, and gives to it its peculiar ropiness. It yields a 

 sugar which reduces salts of copper, but does not ferment. 



The Alcohol Series in organic, chemistry includes an in- 

 teresting substance, termed cholesterine, which is found 

 in very many of the tissues of the body, more especially 

 bile and brain. In the latter, small masses of choles- 

 terine, exhibiting peculiar glistening fish-scale-like appear- 



