240 
Tlie Ajjplicalions of Physiology 
of the temperature of the body of the young animal. The 
proportion between the unazotised and azotised matter is com- 
pletely altered, and the nutrition of the animal is placed in 
an unnatural condition. This is far from being an universal 
practice. Earl Spencer, to whose judgment on this point we 
cannot pay too high a deference, feeds his calves for three months 
on unskimmed milk, and afterwards on skimmed milk, to which 
he adds the meal of oats or of barley.* In this practice, which 
forms a striking contrast with the preceding, we find that, even 
when it is considered necessary to withdraw the butter from the 
milk, the proportion of food fitted for the support of respiration 
is compensated by the increased amount of unazotised matter in 
the meal with which it is mixed. 
Although it is a very false economy to stint the allowance of 
food to a young animal, there may possibly be certain cases in 
which the same liberal allowance cannot be given, as in the case 
now mentioned. The demand for milk has made the farmer 
very desirous to discover certain substitutes for that valuable fluid. 
The late Duke of Northumberland prepared skimmed milk with 
treacle and linseed oil-cake, and it is stated that this mixture has 
been found to succeed, j Here the sugar in the treacle, with 
the fat and gum of the oil-cake, served to compensate for the 
cream removed from the milk. Cream, however, contains also a 
quantity of casein, which is not supplied in this mixture. Bruised 
flax-seed, J and an infusion of hay,§ have been added to skimmed 
milk for a similar purpose. 
On this subject it may be worthy of remark that the only kind 
of food in which casein exists is that derived from leguminous 
plants, such as beans, peas, and lentils. When bean-flour is 
softened and ground up with water, and the infusion passed 
through a sieve, the water is found to contain casein, fat (butter), 
and starch. The latter deposits by standing; and the infusion 
has now all the characters of skimmed milk, as in fact, with the 
exception of sugar of milk, and butter, it is precisely identical with 
it. The addition of some fatty and gummy matter (as an infusion 
of linseed-cake) would more nearly approximate it to the com- 
position of ordinary milk. And it is well worthy of remark, 
that in several districts of England, and in many of Scotland, 
pea or bean soup is very frequently given to young calves. 
I merely put this forward in a chemical point of view, my 
* Earl Spencer has found that sago forms an excellent mixture with 
skimmed milk for weaning calves. The sago, principally starch, forms an 
equivalent for butter. 
t Dickson's Practical Agriculture, vol. ii., p. 987. 
% Annals of Agriculture, vol. xxiii. 
\J New System of Husbandry, vol. iii. 
