22 MANUAL OF CATTLE-FEEDING. 



The digestion, however, as well as the utih'zatiun of the 

 digested nutrients, was exactly the same as under normal 

 conditions, and the animals, when killed at the end of the 

 experiments, were found to be apparently well nourished, 

 and with all the organs in a healthy state. 



We must conclude from these, and numerous other simi- 

 lar researches, that the phenomena of dulness and weak- 

 ness observed in all such experiments are due directly and 

 exclusively to the lack of inorganic ingredients in the food, 

 and that the comparatively speedy death is caused by 

 the separation from the animal organs and juices of those 

 salts necessary for the due performance of their functions, 

 and their removal fi^om the body in the xtrine. 



Essential and Accidental Salts. — The greater por- 

 tion of the inorganic matters of the body exists, in com- 

 bination with organic substances, as an essential constitu- 

 ent of the various tissues and juices. Strictly speaking, it 

 forms part of the organic (or organized) portion of the 

 body. Its amount is very constant. Another variable 

 and much smaller portion, which we may call accidental, 

 exists simply dissolved in the fluids of the body, without 

 really forming part of it. This portion can never be \ery 

 great, even with an abundant supply of salts in the food, 

 since the latter are rapidly excreted in the urine, and the 

 more rapidly the greater their quantity; while those salts 

 which enter into the composition of the tissues can be ex- 

 creted no faster than they are set at liberty by the nsing 

 up of the tissue, and, in fact, even when thus set at liberty, 

 may recombine, in part, with organic matter to fonn new 

 tissue. 



This latter fact is particularly noticeable when the food 

 is poor in salts. Thus, it yrm found in the experiments 

 already described (p. 21) that the excretion of salts was 



