100 VETERINAEY HYGIENE 



cannot be included in this statement, but their amount is 

 small. 



To sum up the use of fat and carbo-hydrates in a diet we 

 may say : 



1. They exercise a remarkably economic effect on the 

 wear and tear of proteid tissues. 



2. They are force producers as they liberate energy on 

 oxidation. 



3. They are also heat producers and maintain the 

 temperature of the body. 



The Vegetable Acids consist of oxalic, tartaric, malic, and 

 citric, united to lime, soda or potash. 



In the body they are combusted, and the bases being set 

 free unite with carbonic acid to form carbonates, which are 

 eliminated with the urine and other secretions. In this 

 way they maintain the alkalinity of the blood and body 

 fluids. 



The vegetable acids are of undoubted value in nutrition ; 

 the best evidence of which is that by their administration 

 scurvy in the human subject is prevented, when vegetable 

 diet is deficient or absent. 



INORGANIC SUBSTANCES. 



Mineral Matter. — The salts found in the food must agree 

 with those required by the body. About four-fifths of the 

 total salts in the body are a compound of phosphoric acid 

 and lime, while one-fifth is composed of potash, soda, 

 magnesia, iron, chlorine, etc. In quantity potash and soda 

 come next to lime and phosphoric acid. 



Vegetable diet furnishes much more potassium than 

 sodium salts, which explains the universal practice of 

 taking common salt with vegetables like potatoes, and the 

 addition of it to the diet of herbivora. 



Growing animals require more salts than adults, and we 

 see this provided for in the composition of milk. A calf 

 will store up daily for a year 277 grains phosphoric acid, 



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