52 HORSE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA 



may often witness the baneful effects — in the form of 

 diarrhoea, filled legs, and a general " heated " state of the 

 system — of the consum])tion of too much gram, or kulthee. 



An excess of nitrogenous food, such as gram, or kulthee, 

 seems to hasten the oxidation of fat, probably, by inducing 

 a fevered state of the system, in which the temperature 

 of the body is raised above its normal degree. Hence we 

 find that an excess of such food retards the process of 

 getting an animal into a fat condition. 



Fat, Starch, and Sugar in Food. — These con- 

 stituents are, by the process of digestion, utilized in the 

 formation of fat ; the first named being directly absorbed, 

 without undergoing any organic change, Its excess is 

 apt, especially during idleness, to cause derangement of 

 the liver, from its accumulating to an injurious extent in 

 the cells of that organ; and also tends to produce fatty 

 infiltration and degeneration of various tissues, rendering 

 them unable to bear the strain of violent exertion. Too 

 large a supply of sugar also acts in a similar, but in a less 

 energetic manner. An excess of starch appears to exert 

 little or no injurious effect; for what is not required? 

 seems to be harmlessly expelled with the dung. Thus, we 

 see that the bad results of an excess of either fat, sugar, 

 or starch are in a direct proportion to the ease with which 

 they are assimilated. When an animal is in poor condition, 

 the value of these foods is in the same ratio. 



Nitrogenous matters are also capable of forming fat ; 

 for in them we find the necessary carbon, hydrogen, and 

 oxygen. This process of obtaining fat from nitrogenous 

 food, probably, takes place to a far slighter degree among 

 the herbivora, than among the carnivora, whose bodily 



