118 The Feeding of Animals 



the bile and the pancreatic juice appear to share the 

 function of fat digestion. 



As the intestinal contents pass along, they come in 

 contact with a juice secreted by the walls of the intes- 

 tines, the action of which has been carefully studied. 

 It has been found that this liquid has no action on the 

 proteids or fats, but that it is able to convert starch 

 into soluble bodies, and especially has the peculiar prop- 

 erty of transforming into glucose the maltose arising 

 from previous digestion, glucose being the form in 

 which all digested carbohydrates are supposed to enter 

 the circulation. It seems, then, that the intestinal juice 

 supplements the action of the other digestive fluids, so 

 far as carbohydrates are concerned, completing starch 

 digestion and preparing the sugars for absorption, and 

 when we consider that from 80 to 90 per cent of the 

 food of our farm animals consists of carbohydrates the 

 great importance of this office is apparent. 



From the time the food enters the stomach until the 

 undigested residue leaves the body the contents of the 

 alimentary canal are subjected to fermentations caused 

 by organized ferments, resulting in the evolution of 

 acids, gases and certain other compounds formed from 

 the proteids, which give to the feces its offensive odor. 

 Just what relation these fermentations have to the di- 

 gestion of food we are not able to state. There are 

 some reasons for believing that crude fiber (cellulose), 

 during its stay in the first stomach, is the subject of 

 their action, and its digestion may be partly accom- 

 plished in this way. Such fermentations become promi- 

 nent only when, because real digestion does not proceed 



