388 FOOD AND FEEDING. 



Taking the whole of the milk ootained and treated at differenl 

 seasons of the year, I find that 36,000 lbs. of milk yielded 1080 lbs. 

 of fresh butter, which is at the rate of 3 per cent. From the state- 

 ment of M. Baude, it appears that near Geneva a proportion of 

 butter so high as 3 per cent, is never obtained, probably because 

 there a larger projJortion of fatty matter is left in the cheese. In 

 the dairy of Cartigny, 2200 gallons of milk gave : 



B'^tter 363 lbs. or about 1.6 per cent, 



Gruye re cheese 1515 " 6.9 " 



Clot from the whey, obtained by boiling 1140 " 5.2 " 



In the same neighborhood, another dairy, that of Lullin, gave from 

 the same quantity of milk : 



Butter 4181bs.or 1.9 per cent. 



Cheese 1485 67.5 " 



Clot from whey 968 4.4 " * 



OF THE FOOD OF ANIMALS AND FEEDING. 



The identity, in point of composition and properties, which ap- 

 pears to obtain between certain substances derived from either king- 

 dom of nature, naturally led to the conclusion that animals do not 

 form or originate the substances which enter into their organization, 

 but that they find these ready formed in their food, and merely ap- 

 propriate them ; whence we must conclude, that herbivorous animals 

 assimilate several of the proximate principles of plants immediately, 

 causing them to undergo but slight modifications, and that the ele- 

 ments of the animal tissues and fluids pre-exist in vegetables, which 

 further contain the earthy phosphate that forms the distinguishing 

 characteristic in bone.t 



The food of herbivorous animals must, therefore, always contain, 

 and in fact always contains, four essential principles, which, by their 

 combination or reunion, constitute nutritious matter, properly so 

 called : — 1st. An azotized matter, such as albumen, caseine, gluten, 

 substances which are probably the original of flesh. ' 2d. An oily or 

 fatty matter, which approaches more or less closely to fatty bodies 

 in general. 3d. A substance having a ternary composition, sugar, 

 gum, fecula. 4th. Certain salts, particularly phosphates of lime, 

 magnesia, and iron. This mixed constitution, which a forage plant 

 must needs offer, justifies the general ideas propounded by Dr. Prout 

 on nutrition. This able chemist has said that milk was to be viewed 

 as the standard food, and that all alimentary matters must resemble 

 it in composition, in greater or less degree : that is to say, besides 

 phosphates, food must contain an azotized principle, a non-azotized 

 principle, and a fatty body, to stand in lieu of caseum, sugar, and 

 butter. 



The fundamental principle that animals find the several substances 

 which make up their bodies, ready formed in the substances they 



* In all the dairy counties of England, the milk is never required, like the ground, ta 

 five a double crop ; 'I yields either butter or cheese, not both. Hence the greater rich- 

 ness of English cheese In general. — Eno. Ed. 



t Dumas and Boussingault. The Chemical and Physiological Balance of Organl* 

 Natnxe, post 8vo. London. BalUiere, 1843. (A very useful little work.— Eno. Ed. J 



