681 MR. DICK ON COOKING FOOD FOR HORSES. 
system, it must appear evident that something approaching to 
this solution, if done artificially, would greatly aid the organs of 
digestion in this process, and that thereby much exertion might 
be saved to the system, and, at the same time, nourishment would 
be more rapidly conveyed into it. It is with this view that I 
would recommend the general adoption of cooking food for 
horses and cattle. 
When the food is broken down by cutting the hay and straw, 
and bruising, boiling or steaming the oats, not only is there 
less waste, by the whole being used as manger meat, but much 
labour is saved to the animal, in having the tough dried hay, 
and hard oats, masticated for him, and in a state almost pre¬ 
pared for digestion; and, as regards the oats, all the nourish¬ 
ment they can afford is readily yielded to the digestive organs; 
for not only may I refer to the fact already stated regarding the 
poultry on board the Coldstream Indiaman, but I may also ob¬ 
serve the fact which we find, that unless the grain is broken 
down, or otherwise killed by boiling, it is not acted on, and will 
grow as readily after having passed through the horse, as the 
olives did after passing through the turkeys. Oats, like every 
other seed, is possessed of vitality ; and it would appear that the 
organs of digestion, and their secretions, do not act upon bodies 
possessing it. Were it not for this exception, the gastric juice, 
which acts upon and dissolves every dead matter taken into the 
stomach, would act upon the stomach itself; but it is not pos¬ 
sessed of this power. Worms are, from this cause, also allowed 
to live in the stomach, but, when dead, become acted upon like 
other dead matter. Hence we often find worms, when destroyed 
by medicine, disappear, although we have not observed them 
pass with the faeces. 
It is, therefore, necessary to destroy the life of the food taken 
into the stomach before it can yield nourishment to the animal. 
This may be done, as has already been stated, by bruising, and 
the finer it is bruised the better, because it is capable of being 
more completely mixed with the cut straw or hay, and the 
whole is then more easily eaten ; but as the experiments of Cap¬ 
tain Chevne have shown, it may also be steamed or boiled, and 
given with the same advantage ; and from what has been stated 
regarding digestion, it must be pretty obvious that this kind of 
cooking brings the food nearest to the state of being readily dis¬ 
solved and acted on by the digestive organs. The only objec¬ 
tion which will at once occur, I know is, that boiled or steamed 
meat will incline a horse to purge : this, however, is not so much 
the case as many, without trial, may suppose ; and where it does 
occur, it is perhaps owing to too large a quantity being given at 
