Miscellaneous Intelligence. 435 



3. Practical application of the Law pointed out by Dr. R. D. Thorn- 

 son, of the proper Balance of ike Food in Nutrition ; by Dr. C. Remi- 

 gius Fresenius, Professor of Chemistry at the Agricultural Institute 

 of Weisbaden,* (Phil. Mag., [3], xxxv, 127, 18 49.)— In reference to the 



question concerning the relation which must subsist between the nitro- 

 genous and non-nitrogenous nutritive substances in the food of men and 

 animals, it is but due to Dr. R. D. Thomson to acknowledge, that he 

 considers this the most important circumstance in nutrition, and was the 

 first to call attention to it. 



This relation is obviously different in various classes of animals, and 

 besides it must be different even in the same class of animals, accord- 

 ing to their mode of life and to the amount of exercise they undergo. 



An animal which is hard worked will require a different proportion 

 from one which stands at rest in a stable; still more different must be the 

 proportion when our object is to fatten the animal. I consider it to be 

 one of the most important tasks of dietary and the feeding of cattle, to 

 fix the requisite proportions suited to the various modes of life, for it 

 may be understood that these limits cannot be overstepped on either 



side without injury. 



Li» ■ i j • 



et us suppose, for instance, an animal requires under certain cir- 

 cumstances the proportion of one nitrogenous (nutritive) to five non- 

 nitrogenous (calorifiant) constituents in its food ; but if we give it food 

 in which the proportion of one to ten prevails, there will be, in the pro- 

 cess of nutrition, for every one part nitrogenous only five parts non- 

 nitrogenous assimilated ; the other half of the non-nitrogenous (calo- 

 rifiant) aliment will be wasted. f 



But it is not the pecuniary loss alone which arises through this, that 

 deserves consideration ; for it is clear that the animal will be burdened 

 with the process of getting rid of the unassimilated half; for this object 

 strength is required, which might otherwise have been spared. 



If we give it food containing too large a proportion of nitrogenous 

 aliment, in favorable circumstances it will consume the dearer instead 

 of the cheaper non-nitrogenous aliment; but in unfavorable circum- 

 stances it will become diseased, by being compelled to act in opposition 

 to nature. 



cu 



Taking it for granted that the requisite proportions for different cir- 

 mstances were ascertained, the choice of aliment could be regulated 



°n the most rational basis. 



--^ •*«w^i IUUUUU4 ClAh?J»7# 



[We speak here primarily only of the absolute strength of nourish- 

 ment, without noticing the greater or less degree of digestibility pos- 

 sessed by equally nutritious substances, and the proportion of unassai- 

 lable constituents which they contain.] 



* 



Translated from the Lehrhuch der Chemie fur Landmrthe, ForstmUnm - und 

 Cmneralisten von Dr. C. Remigius Fresenraa (1847), page 480, by AN Ulna Augustus 

 I'trston. 



t The original passage is " So wW m beim Ernahruntfsprooe-e au f je 1 Thl 

 8tukstofn ia ltige eben doch mir 5 Thie sticks! offreie Besthandtheft verwenden, d* 

 a&dere Halfte der stickstoffhaltigen Nahrangsmittel wird vergeudet # The true 

 reading it is apprehended ought to be sfirkstoffreie Nahrungsmittd, and it has been 

 kus rendered in the English v«ri«to-^TEAN8. 



