108 FORMATION OF FAT IN HERBIVOROUS ANIMALS. 
As regards the rider, however, we can speak of the patent 
saddle in much less ambiguous terms. We have no hesitation 
whatever in saying that persons who complain of the hardness or 
want of elasticity of our common saddles will find in Mr. Ben- 
craft’s a springy and comfortable seat. Neither the old gentleman 
nor the invalid horseman will any more have occasion to resort to 
stuffed pads or quilted seats for ease and comfort : they will both 
find all they desire, astride the spring-seated saddle; and they 
will probably find the difference between it and the common 
saddle the greater, the more they have to complain of the rough 
bone-setting motions of their hackneys. In conclusion, we imagine 
we shall be doing the horseman disposed to, or the subject of, rup- 
ture an especial service by recommending to his notice one of 
Mr. Bencraft’s patent saddles. 
INFLUENCE OF DIET ON THE FORMATION OF FAT 
IN HERBIVOROUS ANIMALS. 
[Academie des Sciences (Paris), August and October.] 
M. BoussiNGAULT communicated a memoir on the above subject. 
Wishing to ascertain whether sugar and amidon contribute directly 
to the formation of butter, he had fed two cows for some time 
solely on beet-root and potatoes. The question is an important 
one, as, were this the case, these latter substances might, with 
great practical advantage, be substituted for the hay, straw, and 
grains with which herbivorous animals are now fed. 
One of the cows had calved ninety days, and the other forty 
days, previous to the commencement of the experiment. They 
were both thriving on the usual stable allowance; viz., for the 
twenty-four hours each, hay, twenty-four lbs. ; potatoes, sixteen 
lbs. ; beet-root twenty-four lbs. ; colza cakes, two lbs. ; chopped 
straw, ad libitum. The medium quantity of milk given, under 
this regimen, was eight or nine pints. Their united weight was 
2322 lbs. After feeding exclusively on beet-roots for fifteen days, 
their weight had fallen to 2158 lbs.., so that they had lost seven 
and a half per cent, of their primitive weight. They were then 
found to be in so bad a condition as to make it prudent to give 
them their usual food. In the course of fifteen days, having re- 
gained four per cent, of their original weight, they were fed on po- 
tatoes for fourteen days consecutively. At the end of that time 
they had lost three per cent. By these two experiments the cows 
had each lost 164 lbs., and had become extremely thin, although 
supplied with food ad libitum. Thus, it appears evident, that 
