39B NEGLECTED COMFORT, &C., OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
frequently kept in a medium far too low for tlieir most profitable 
increase in fatness. The cause of cold retarding the fatness of ani- 
mals is thus explained by Dr. Lyon Playfair {Jour. Roy. Ay. Soc., 
vol. iv, p. 215) : — 
“ When the chemical power, oxygen, succeeds in effecting a waste 
of the body, it converts it into the elements from whence it sprung 
— into carbonic acid, water, and ammonia. There are indeed inter- 
mediate compounds formed, but these are the final products of the 
decay of the body or of its parts, and they are the very substances 
upon which plants live ; so that decay and death thus become the 
source of life. It is known that the vital forces decrease when the 
body is exposed to a certain degree of cold, and, when this is suffi- 
ciently intense, that they are either suspended or altogether annihi- 
lated. But the chemical force, oxygen, is condensed or increased in 
its power by such agencies, and it therefore now reigns triumph- 
ant. Vitality (the cause of increase and of sustenance) being re- 
moved, chemical affinity (the cause of waste) acts upon those tis- 
sues which have been freed from the dominion of vitality, and 
effects their destruction. Hence it is that cattle do not fatten so 
well in cold weather as in hot. The chemical powers being now in 
the ascendant, prevent the increase of the mass. W e know, also, that 
the intervention of cold weather in summer either wholly arrests or 
greatly retards the fattening of our cattle. But as the decrease of 
vitality has been occasioned by a diminution of the temperature of 
the body, it is obvious that, by an elevation of the temperature, vi- 
tality would be again enabled to resume its proper functions. It 
has been shewn that the food of various countries is more or less 
combustible, according to the temperature of the climate ; and proofs 
were adduced that the amount of the food consumed varied also ac- 
cording to the temperature. The animal body is a furnace which 
must be kept up to a certain heat in all climates. This furnace 
must, therefore, be supplied with more or less fuel, according to 
the temperature of the external air. If, then, in winter we wish to 
retain the vital functions of our cattle in a proper degree of activity, 
we must keep up the heat of their bodies. This we may do in two 
ways : we may either add more fuel (food) to the furnace, or we 
may protect their bodies from the cold. Warmth is an equivalent 
for food, which may thus be economized. But I wish to give you 
facts, not assertions ; and as a proof of the view I have now given 
you, I will cite the following experiment which was made by the 
Earl of Ducie, at Whitfield farm : — 
“ One hundred sheep were folded by tens in pens, each of which 
was twenty-two feet in length by ten feet in breadth, and possessed 
a covered shed attached to it of twelve feet in length by ten feet 
in breadth. They were kept in these from the 10th of October to 
