Cattle Condiments. 
427 
that tlicy contained, for upon that point the experiments of Mr. Lawcs 
have fully satisfied every unprejudiced mind ; and there can be no doubt 
in the world that the nitrogeuiscd materials which these compounds 
contain are purchased at an enormous cost. The composition of these 
inixtui-cs is pretty well known, although the exact proportion in which 
linseed-cake, maize, lentils, &c., are used may be unknown or variable ; 
but then we have the addition of some which may be called medicinal 
agents, such as cmnminseed, carrawayseed, aniseed, and liquorice 
powder, to which are added some sulphate of antimony, salt, and 
other substances, many of which are really chemically incom- 
patible one with the other, and do not combine well together. 
Do, then, these agents really promote digestion and the assimila- 
tion of food ? I can readily enough understand that they have 
that effect. Many of them act as iuvigorators of the system, and 
therefore enable the animal, if its digestive organs are weakened, by 
old age or other causes, to digest the same quantity of food in a 
less amount of time, and consequently to appropriate an increased 
quantity of food. But I think all this may be attained in a 
much easier and much safer way. If we took some well-gi'oiind 
linseed-mcal, and with that pea or bean meal, or any of those highly 
nitrogenised matters, and add to them a small quantity of salt — which 
will simply supply the salts of soda to the functions of the liver, and 
increase the quantity of bile — and if we add to that any simjjle sto- 
machic matter in the shape of cmnminseed, carrawayseed, aniseed, 
ginger, gentian, or any of those materials which will act simply as 
stomachics, then v^'e shall have all we require in these respects. 
Farmers, however, are not provided with the machinery required 
for effectually compounding these mixtm-es, and may buy them ready 
prepared to greater advantage ; but for agricultm-ists to be purchasing 
these so-called condiments at the rate of 40Z. a ton, is monstrously 
absm-d. I know well, and other practical gentlemen here present can 
confirm my statement, that such compounds can be sold at from 18s. 
to 11. per cwt., and still leave a profit to the manufactm-er. 
One word with regard to the experience of Major Mimn with lambs 
that were subject to a special disease. Major Munn has given us facts 
that would almost lead to the inference that Thorley's Food is a very 
excellent anthelmintic — that, in reality, it destroys those thread-like 
worms that are situated within the bronchial tubes of the animal. 
With all due deference to Major Munn upon that point, I would say 
that Thorley's Food has no anthelmintic properties whatever. The 
good, therefore, which arose in this individual instance, is simply 
traceable to those agents which, acting as a tonic on the system, 
enabled the animal to make a little more blood out of its food than 
it had done before. A generous diet of corn and cake, with a little 
salt, would have produced precisely the same eifects as Thorley's Food, 
and at much less cost. 
The CHAiRjrAN. — The great advantage which a discussion of this 
kind has over the mere reading of wTitten treatises is, that you hear 
the p-os and the cons. We have had two scientific accounts of this 
