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MAINE STATE COLLEGE 



Let us return to the question of the relation of food to quality. 

 As stated above, there seems to be a widespread opinion that 

 oats are a superior food for horses. During the past few years 

 the claim has been quite generally made, at least in popular litera- 

 ture, that this opinion has been strengthened by the supposed 

 discovery through scientific research of the so-called avenin, a 

 compound existing in the oat kernel, and said to possess properties 

 that render it peculiarly stimulating to the nervous system. The 

 existence of such a compound has been accepted as an easy way 

 of explaining the peculiar effect which oats are said to have 

 upon the spirit of a horse and in the development of the wiry, 

 nervous Scotchman, who is addicted to his oat meal. 



Has science, as in so many other instances, corroborated a belief 

 reached through common experience? A careful study of the 

 records relating to this question will help us to answer. 



It seems that Norton, working in Johnston's laboratory, some- 

 where in 1845, separated what he evidently regarded as an albu- 

 minoid peculiar to the oat grain and it was named by Johnston, 

 avenine. In 1869 Kreusler made an extended study of some of 

 the nitrogenous compounds found in the oat kernel and his work 

 appears to show that Johnston's avenine was very similar to legu- 

 mine, and he accordingly named it oat legumine. Later, Osborne 

 of the Connecticut Experiment Station, has made a very elaborate 

 study of the various proteids separated from the oat grain by a 

 number of solvents. The methods used by Osborne, owing to an 

 advance in knowledge, were superior to those adopted by previous 

 investigators, but did not tend to confirm the conclusions of either 

 Norton or Kreusler. It appears to be true that notwithstanding 

 the fact that the proteids of the oat grain have been made the 

 subject of several very careful and elaborate investigations, using 

 the best methods available, we have not yet any conclusive 

 evidence that the oat kernel contaius any characteristic nitro- 

 genous compounds which may not be found in other grains. It 

 is not difficult to see how the existence of this avenine as a sub- 

 stance peculiar to the oat plant has come to be accepted as a fact 

 in popular literature, because when an error once obtains a foot- 

 hold it is difficult to dislodge ; but it is not so clear why this sup- 

 posed compound should be credited with being a nerve stimu- 

 lant. The writer is usable to find any investigation undertaken 

 with a view to testing this matter ; in fact is unable to find any 

 data upon which such a conclusion could properly be based. 



