156 VETEEINARY HYGIENE 



herbivora. Only gradually should they be brought on to 

 hay and oats, with or without a certain proportion of 

 linseed ; and in each case the grain should be prepared to 

 meet the weak digestion of the animal. 



Sudden changes from poor to rich food should be most 

 carefully guarded against in all animals, it cannot be 

 assimilated, and does harm. 



Notwithstanding the views which have been held in the 

 past regarding the effect on the skeleton of a deficiency of 

 salts in the food, it is probable that with an ordinary diet 

 no deficiency of salts exists. It is not conceivable that any 

 vegetable food as ordinarily supplied to adult animals is 

 deficient in salts, and the cause of bone softening or swelling 

 must be looked for elsewhere. With the growing animal 

 the matter is different, here salts are required in consider- 

 able quantity (p. 100), and a deficiency will certainly affect 

 the growth of the body. 



Conditions of Digestibility and Assimilation. 



The term digestibility is employed here in the sense in 

 which it is ordinarily used, viz., as indicating whether a 

 food agrees or disagrees with an animal. 



Experience shows there are some foods which agree with 

 the system better than others ; there are some which dis- 

 agree if given in too large a quantity, though they are 

 found valuable if given in proper portions. There are foods 

 which disagree because the animal is not used to them, 

 though by being gradually introduced into a diet they pro- 

 duce no derangement. There are foods which though per- 

 fectly suited to one class of animal disagree with other 

 classes. 



Food is frequently described as rank and innutritious, 

 especially that given to cattle ; both digestibility and 

 assimilation are here concerned. Hasmo-albuminuria in 

 cattle has been attributed to this cause, especially when 

 the husk and fruit of the oak and beech form part of the 

 diet. Eank herbage and large quantities of turnips will 

 also produce diarrhoea and dysentery in cattle, while large 



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