VEGETABLE FOODS. 45 



As for serving it to dogs as man sometimes eats it, as 

 beef brose — made by stirring the oatmeal into hot broth 

 — or as porridge or gruel, in which it is seldom if ever 

 cooked, it would be a mean imposition upon the digestive 

 organs, which would more than likely be attended by gas- 

 tric and intestinal disturbance. 



Rice is extremely poor in tissue-building and energy- 

 producing matters, being very nearly pure starch, yet it 

 is by no means to be despised, and as a matter of fact it is 

 one of the most serviceable of the starchy accessories, 

 while for toys like Yorkshire terriers it is really the 

 staple food. 



When properly cooked it is digested with the greatest 

 ease, hence is well borne even where the digestive organs 

 are disordered. Furthermore, it is neither laxative nor 

 constipating. Again, it is a food which can without im- 

 propriety be termed " cooling," for it is absolutely want- 

 ing in stimulating properties, and can safely be given in 

 febrile states without fear of intensifying the existing 

 trouble and fever ; while in conditions of the system in 

 which there is a tendency to inflammation or a " heating 

 up " of the blood, it never, in the slightest degree, aggra- 

 vates such tendency. 



Consequently it can rightly be said to constitute a food 

 of exceeding value, especially for toys that are peculiarly 

 liable to be "heated up" and as a result have "breakings 

 out " of the skin, also for all other breeds when they 

 exhibit like tendencies. And with its other good quali- 

 ties it is fattening, therefore a useful aliment with all that 

 are under weight. 



But while rice is all this, the fact that it is deficient in 

 nutritive principles must not go out of sight, and when 

 used it should be with other foods, as meat and its 

 products and milk, which can compensate for those prin- 

 ciples in which it is wanting. 



