June 14, 1S73.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
095 
have been dropped into the package of aloes, possibly by 
some child, as the skin is smaller than others which have 
been met with. From another parcel a rude knife of very 
peculiar shape and construction was strained. This knife, 
as shown, was probably used to cut off or incise the leaves 
of the plant, though it does not appear to be particularly 
well adapted to such purpose for civilized hands. The 
above figures are given from an experience of straining, 
drying, and powdering more than twenty-two thousand 
pounds of Socotrine aloes. 
The melting, straining, and drying of the aloes by 
artificial heat is very injurious to it, of course, as in pro¬ 
portion to the want of skill and care with which this is 
done it degrades the aloes to the character of the lower 
grades made by decoction. But when the question is 
reduced down to a choice between this injury done and 
the common practice of drying on steam tables without 
straining, and thus powdering up goat-skin, stones, sticks, 
etc., there can be no doubt as to which course is best for 
the interests of medicine. The finer packages of red 
Socotrine aloes, which always command a high price but 
are slow sale, contain so little of impurity which can be 
separated by a No. 60 sieve, that as a rule it is better to 
use it without this hurtful process. Spread thinly out upon 
shallow trays of tinned iron, the advisability of straining 
can be approximately and usefully judged. And if this 
be done in cold weather when the aloes does not run, and 
when the air is comparatively dry, a couple of months’ 
exposure, at ordinary temperatures, is sufficient to dry the 
aloes well, retaining its natural aroma to a highly desirable 
and useful extent. It is very much to be feared that the 
use of such aloes in the officinal formulas is very much 
undervalued, since the Socotrine aloes which has passed 
through the writer’s hands within the past ten years has 
been very nearly all used by successive crops of quack pill 
men, who must have good drugs while getting up the re¬ 
putation of their nostrums, though this may not be the 
time when the money is made. Pharmacists, as a class, 
use very few such drugs, because not knowing their value 
they will not pay the price. 
A case of very good red Socotrine aloes, imported by 
the writer from Messrs. Arthur S. Hill and Son, of London, 
is shown herewith, and will be found in the exhibition- 
room of the Association during the meeting. The mem¬ 
bers are invited to make a critical examination of it. This 
case cost £19 10s. per cwt. of 112 lbs. in London. That 
is to say, about 83 cents gold without freight, duty, or 
any other element of cost. The currency cost price to the 
writer cannot be far from 1 dol. 20 cents per pound. It 
is drier than usual, though not cleaner than the best of 
its kind, and will not lose in drying more than about 
10 per cent., while it does not need straining. Add 10 per 
cent, to 1 dol. 20 cents and the cost will stand about 
1 dol. 32 cents currency. A very high price, but the cost 
well represented in intrinsic value. 
This case, however, is exceptionably costly, since five 
cases had by the writer from Messrs. Dix and Morris, of 
New York, next previous to this shipment, were of 
nearly as good quality, and quite as clean, though not 
quite so dry, at 75 cents per pound currency. 
ANIMAL NUTRITION. 
BY HERR STOHMANN. 
The author, who has studied the subject of animal 
nutrition by the aid of a series of experiments upon goats, 
has published the results in Der Nat arfor softer for April. 
The following abstract of the memoir is taken from the 
London Medical Record (June 4):— 
With regard to the proportion of food-stuffs utilized in 
nutrition, as deduced from a comparison of excrement 
with food consumed, Herr Stohmann finds that “ there 
is no essential difference in the utilization (A usniitzung 
of meadow-hay in different kinds of ruminating animals— 
the ox, the cow, the sheep, the goat.” The same thing’ 
indeed, has been previously expressed by other observers ; 
it is a result of some methodological importance, as esta¬ 
blishing the possibility of comparing experiments made on 
different species of animals, and drawing general con¬ 
clusions from these. 
“ The addition of greater quantities of easily digested 
non-nitrogenous matters to hay causes considerably less 
absorption of albuminous substances and of raw fibres 
(Rohfaser —a somewhat impure cellulose, obtainable by a 
simple analysis).” As proof of this is given the following. 
The absorption of albumen in meadow-hay, in one of the 
animals, was 58'4 per cent.; on addition of 200 grs. 
starch-flour and 200 grs. gum, the absorption sank to 
32'6 per cent. So also with the raw fibres, though in 
greater degree. In the fodder consumed there were 110 
grs. of raw fibres furnished daily. Supposing a digesti¬ 
bility in these equal to that in meadow-hay for fodder, 
49 grs. ought to be digested daily, whereas only 11 grs. 
were digested. The digestibility of raw fibres is therefore 
diminished in the proportion of these numbers. 
“ The addition of carbohydrates seems to have no influ¬ 
ence on the digestibility of fat.” The percentage absorp¬ 
tion-numbers were the same as for unmixed hay. 
“ The absorption of substances of the albuminoid group 
is dependent on the proportion of nitrogenous to non- 
nitrogenous matter in the fodder.” In this statement, 
partly the same thing is expressed as in the former, 
but it has special reference to protein-stuffs, and to the 
addition of any other food-stuffs, not merely the easily 
digestible non-nitrogenous materials. This relation Herr 
Stohmann has endeavoured to express by way of mathe¬ 
matical formula, as follows :— 
where p denotes the quantity of protein-stuffs consumed, 
p the digested portion of these, and S, the weight of the 
non-nitrogenous constituents of the fodder.” It will be 
seen that p increases with the decrease of S; so that the 
protein-stuffs are the more digestible the more they pre¬ 
ponderate in the food. 
There can be no doubt that a formula of this kind will 
never be absolutely accurate. Apart from the various 
digestibility of protein-stuffs of different origin, there 
would, in the case where S = 0, be a perfect absorption 
of the protein-stuffs; i.e., the faeces would be free from 
nitrogen; whereas Herr Stohmann himself takes cogni¬ 
zance of the fact, that the solid excrements are richer in 
nitrogen, the more protein-stuffs have been consumed as 
food. But this is not the meaning of the formula; it 
claims only a relative validity, and that only within the 
limits of variation of ordinary fodder mixtures (or a little 
beyond these). To this must be added that it agrees very 
fully with the numbers obtained in experiments; and so, 
with the proviso mentioned, it may be accepted as. a 
means of estimating beforehand the digestion of protein 
matter, in a healthy ruminant, for a given amount of 
fodder. Herr Stohmann does not attempt a theoretical 
explanation of the phenomenon in question, and probably 
the data are insufficient for this; it is, however, a decided 
advance, to succeed in constructing a valid formula like 
that just given. 
“ Easily-digested carbohydrates diminish the absorption 
of fat.” Under the influence of starch-flour and gum, 
the absorption of the fat of meadow-hay is reduced from 
35 to 23 or 24 per cent.; through sugar, even to 7 per 
cent. We here see again the similar influence of starch- 
flour and gum, whence it appears that both substances 
are closely allied in the process of digestion. 
In addition to the foregoing propositions there are 
others which are of a more secondary and methodological 
interest. 
“ The sum of the digested non-nitrogenous constituents 
of meadow-hay is approximately equal to the quantity of 
