ANALYSIS OF CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 487 
nitrogen, and 15,708 grammes of carbon, instead of 856 
grammes of nitrogen, and 16,860 grammes of carbon; that is 
339 grammes of nitrogen more and 1 160 grammes less carbon 
than he would receive if fed on meadow hay and oats. If beans 
were substituted for oats the horse would receive three times 
more plastic matter and one-third less of the thermogens. 
If a horse requires, for the kind of work it has to perform, 
an aliment similar to meadow hay and oats, as has been 
demonstrated by observations, is it surprising that he is 
underfed when rye, barley, or beans are substituted, be it 
that these aliments are either deficient in the dynamogen 
principles, or that they contain an excess of the plastic ele- 
ments ? 
The effects produced on the horse by insufficient aliments 
are of necessity variable, and vary according to the quantity 
of aliment forming the rations. Many of these aliments 
deviate from meadow hay more by the excess of nitrogen than 
by their deficiency of carbon. Thus if we substitute for the 
hay and oats equal weight of lucerne and rye, most probably 
the horse would suffer more from the excess of the nitro- 
genous principles than from the want of carbon. If, on the 
contrary, we reduce the quantity of grain and forage in pro- 
portion to the greater nutritious value in the rye and lucerne, 
to that of meadow hay and oats, horses will suffer so much 
more from the want of the respiratory principles as they have 
already been reduced by the substitution of one aliment for 
the other, than by the reduction of the rations. This leads 
us to believe that most frequently, in these substitutions, the 
evil effect is produced by an excess of nitrogen, it appears 
that these aliments, which have never been sufficient to keep 
the horse in good working condition, are distinguished prin- 
cipally by an excess of nitrogen, from those which have been 
considered as the type of aliments, as for instance, when 
lucerne is substituted for meadow hay, weight for weight. 
The convenience in the choice of these aliments must depend 
on the age of the animals, the work they have to perform. 
Aliments deficient in fatty matter and respiratory principles 
generally might be used in large proportions in the food 
of horses for slow work, and in many farms horses are 
exclusively fed on them, while in the feeding of horses 
for fast work they can only be used in very small quan- 
tities, and in conjunction with aliments rich in thermogen 
principles. 
Aliments rich in thermogen principles . — All hippocratics have 
acknowledged the utility of straw as food for horses ; the 
composition of this aliment is — 
