ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
651 
eighty parts by weight of malt, we shall have the following 
formulae : — 
C. H. N. O. 
Barley 123 106 2 82 
Malt 90 85 0 69 
~33 21 2 13 loss. 
The carbon has disappeared in the form of carbonic acid gas, 
and the nitrogen, probably, in that of ammonia. It is true, that 
during malting water has been taken up, but this has gone to 
convert the starch into sugar. 
From the comparisons instituted by Professor Thomson, in 
feeding of cows on malt and barley, this was the result : — ** In 
every point of view malt is inferior to barley as an article of 
diet for cattle, as it gives less milk and butter, and diminishes 
the live weight instead of increasing it, which barley does under 
the same circumstances.'’ 
The formation of urinary calculi was traced to the metamor- 
phosis urea undergoes when in contact with water and mucus, 
by which it becomes converted into the carbonate of ammonia ; 
which compound acting on the lime salts, excreted by the vessels 
of the kidney, a carbonate of lime — the general constituent of 
these concretions in the herbivora — is thus formed. As a solvent 
for these, hydrochloric acid may be either given or injected into 
the bladder; while lactic acid must be employed for the phos- 
phates; and should the urates be ever met with, the alkalies 
must be resorted to for their solution. 
Enough, he felt convinced, had been advanced to prove the 
influence food has in the production of disease. And here he 
left altogether unnoticed DYSPEPSIA, with its consequences, 
having preferred confining himself to those maladies the cause 
of which may be traced to chemical changes going on in the 
organism, or the food taken into the stomach. And it would 
have been easy to add to these. Of this he felt assured, that 
Dietetics, in common with Hygiene, or the regulation of ex- 
ternal conditions, demands more attention than is commonly 
given to it by the practitioner of veterinary medicine. 
Adverting to the remedies employed, the Lecturer said the 
days has passed by when the right eyes of hedgehogs fried in oil, 
and roasted toads, were extolled as specifics. When the warm 
blood of a recently slain gladiator was esteemed a remedy for 
epilepsy ; the thigh bone of an executed criminal a cure for 
dysentery ; and three scruples of the ashes of a witch, well and 
carefully burnt at a stake, proved a sure catholicon against 
witchcraft. When the spittal of a fasting man was held to be 
good against the bites of serpents and mad dogs ; and the cut- 
