PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 385 



a theory of how an animal should be treated, and the animal 

 might live under that presumption; but he thought it would do 

 better to have its own way. In the second place, he would give 

 animals salt because a certain per cent, of the blood of the animal 

 is salt; and the animal must have the means of furnishing that 

 saline basis to the blood. The bile is based upon soda; and 

 there is no other source from which this soda can be obtained 

 than salt, the chloride of sodium. No doubt an animal can live 

 without extra supplies of salt, but it is better to give it all it 

 desires. 



Mr. Pardee. — Would you carry out the same principle with 

 regard to children? 



Dr. Waterbury. — I would. 



Mr. Pardee. — Suppose they had a love for intoxicating drinks ? 



Dr. Waterbury. — They do not. 



Mr. Pardee. — It may be inherited ; and Mr. Robinson says that 

 this is an acquired appetite, as the desire for intoxicating drinks 

 is acquired by man. If it is an intoxication shall we indulge 

 them in it ? 



Dr. Waterbur5\ — It is necessary first to show that allowing an 

 animal all the salt it wants is injurious to it? 



Mr. Smith suggested that the birds which inhabit the guano 

 islands have nothing but salt. 



Dr. Trimble said that the hunters in the west were familiar 

 with the fact that the deer flock to the salt-licks ; and thus they 

 take advantage of this natural propensity in finding their game. 



Mr. Lawton had given salt to his cattle for twenty years, with- 

 out injury. If the salt is a stimulant, it must be a very harm- 

 less one. 



Mr. Robinson said that there are millions of acres and hundreds 

 of miles where there is no salt which the wild cattle can get, so 

 that a great many animals never have any, excepting Avhat is 

 contained in their food. It Avould be just as reasonable to give 

 animals lime because it is an element of their bones, or glue 

 because it is an element of their hides, as salt because it is an 

 element of their blood, 



Mr. Quinn. — If land is deficient in salt, the plants grown upon 

 it will be deficient in salt, and then it will be necessary to make 

 up the deficiency by salting the cattle. In New Hampshire, the 

 cattle suffer from the bone disease, from a deficiency of lime in 

 the soil; and bone meal is given to them to cure the disease. 



[Am. Inst.] Y 



