Experiments on the Feeding of Stock. 
445 
rung on a peal of bells ; tliat some slight transposition, which 
we cannot detect, alone differences the most useful from the most 
noxious substances : — • 
• " tautiim series juncturaque pollet, 
TantuDi de medio siimptis accedit honoris." 
If in the natural processes something has gone amiss, whereby, 
according to prevailing theories, the abortion would seem to be 
rendered superior to the perfect creature, surely in the present 
state of our knowledge it would be more wise to infer incom- 
pleteness in our guesses at science, than to assume on such evi- 
dence that practice, supported probably by physiology, is blind 
and wilful. 
As for the question of the sale of corn, IVI. Reiset states that 
in France when corn is nominally sold by measure, they always 
require that it be made up to a certain weight, and that the 
hectolitre with its makeweight (comble) then represents 110 or 
even 115 litres of com ; or else, if only 100 litres are delivered, 
the price is modified according to their shortcoming in weight. 
He concludes that there is no advantage, direct or indirect, in 
retaining any reference to measure in the sale of corn, since the 
weight per bushel is no indication of nutritive value : whilst his 
careful experiments enlighten the uninitiated as to the difficulty 
of defining what a measure of corn is, when so much depends on 
little expedients employed in the measuring. 
Experiments on the Feeding of Stock. 
These experiments are reported in great detail : the amount of 
food supplied, and the percentages of nitrogen which it contained ; 
the amount of the solid and liquid excrements and their nitrogen ; 
the gain in live weight ; the weight of each carcase, with its 
fleece and tallow, and the percentages of nitrogen contained in 
these ; the value of the food and of the animals, being all stated 
Avith the utmost precision. 
Such details are indispensable for the proper appreciation of 
the value of the results. Thus alone can it be shown that each 
animal was a fair specimen and its health and comfort con- 
tinuously maintained, and therefore that the results are normal. 
It is not, perhaps, advisable to dwell upon those features in 
sheepfecding which have held a prominent place in the numerous 
experiments already recorded in these volumes ; they shall, 
therefore, only be briefly noticed in subordination to other points 
which have more of novelty, and as they serve to contrast the 
English and French breeds of sheep. But it must not be for- 
gotten that there is no royal road to knowledge ; not a word is 
redundant in the eighty pages of this record, written with all the 
perspicuity of the best French style ; so that to condense and popu- 
