ON SHOEING HORSES. 
608 
being fed on an abundant supply of azotised food; for if he be bled, 
the clot is found in excess. Reverse the diet to non-azotised food, 
and the muscular development is soon lost, and adipose deposit 
takes its place. And if blood be now taken, the serum has the 
balance in its favour. Having thus far demonstrated that these 
two conditions of blood are relatively essential to the formation of 
fat and muscle, may we not physiologically infer that fat is a 
secretion from the serum of the blood, and its formation the result 
of atomic arrangement in the cells of the adipose tissue 1 It is 
also ascertained as a fact, that an excess of food abounding in non- 
azotised constituents cannot go to form muscle or any other part 
of the machine in which red globules are essential. On this 
principle we may account for the smallness of the lungs and livers, 
and the diminutive muscular development, in animals fed on food 
containing little nitrogen; for I can, and not problematically, 
assert, that it is not necessary animals should have small lungs to 
make fat; but that every organ in which the red globules play an 
active part become less in formation, since the serum of the blood 
exists above its natural standard. This theory does not harmonize 
with Liebig’s, as to the manner in which fat is formed. I have 
briefly laid this subject before the readers of The Veterinarian, 
in the hope that it will be the means of discovering whether these 
two conditions of the blood have been observed or noticed as to 
their productive results in the animal creation by other phy¬ 
siologists. Liebig and Playfair maintained, that in proportion as an 
animal grew fat, so in like proportion did the organs connected 
with nutrition diminish in size. 
The theory I have advanced goes to prove that the lungs and 
liver, and the muscular growth, become less in the animal as 
the serum of the blood becomes more and the clot less abundant. 
Supposing, therefore, that all non-azotised matters go to the form¬ 
ation of fat which is not consumed in the production of animal heat, 
my argument is, that the fat in animals resulting from being fed on 
starchy matters induces an excess of serum, and thus contributes to 
the formation of fat, and not to the mechanical theory of the 11 un¬ 
burnt carbon.” 
ON SHOEING HORSES. 
By Shoeing Smiths. 
(Third Article.) 
Now, boy, let us hear more of the Caliphs. 
Ned will not let me have the MS.; he says, if he should want 
a job, masters will not give him employment, for aiding and abet¬ 
ting in leading your minds astray. Is that true, Ned 1 —No; there 
