32 DIGESTION AND FOOD. 



present any marked difference in their appearance ; but in 

 the course of the following April, this difference became quite 

 manifest, even to an unpractised eye. The lot No. 2 had 

 then been without salt for six months. In the .animals of 

 both lots, the skin had a fine and substantial texture, easily 

 stretched and separated from the ribs ; but the hair, which 

 was tarnished and disordered in the bullocks of the second 

 lot, was smooth and glistening in those of the first. As the 

 experiment went on, these characters became more marked ; 

 and, at the beginning of October, the animals of lot No. 2, 

 after going without salt for an entire year, presented a rough 

 and tangled hide, with patches here and there, where the 

 skins were entirely uncovered. The bullocks of lot No. 1 

 retained, on the contrary, the ordinary aspect of stall-fed 

 animals. Their vivacity and their frequent attempts at mount- 

 ing contrasted strongly with the dull and unexcitable aspect 

 presented by the others. No doubt the first lot would have 

 commanded a higher price in the market than the second." 



Chloride of sodium favours digestion so much, and seems 

 to excite the appetite to such an extent, that it is not to be 

 recommended on farms where animals are liable to diseases 

 arising from plethora; and, though I have known it prescribed 

 for splenic apoplexy, it is attended with an unfavourable 

 effect by stimulating the production of blood. 



I have before said that chloride of sodium does not 

 materially induce chemical changes in the body, and this is 

 proved by Barral's researches, which indicate that, only a 

 very small quantity disappears in the body, and, probably, 

 undergoes there a double decomposition, with phosphate of 

 potass forming chloride of potassium and phosphate of soda. 

 Chloride of sodium is freely thrown off by the secretions a 

 certain quantity, however, remaining in the blood, and the pro- 

 portion there found being subject to very slight variations. 



