CHEMISTRY IN AGRICULTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY. 419 
only from the transformation of some compound of albumen, 
and that the other matters on which an animal feeds are for 
the purposes of respiration. 
The process of nutrition is seen in its simplest forms in 
the carnivora. This class of animals lives on the blood and 
flesh of the graminivora, but this blood and flesh is in all its 
properties identical with their own. Neither chemical nor 
physiological differences can be discovered. Hence, in a 
chemical point of view, it may be said, that a carnivorous 
animal, in supporting the vital processes, consumes itself. 
Let us give our attention for a few minutes to particular 
kinds of diet. First, animal food. Of whichever class this 
is, whether beef, mutton, pork, poultry, or fish, we know 
that it consists chiefly of muscle, and that for ordinary use 
any one of these may be received as an equivalent nearly for 
the other, varying only with the proportion of solid matter 
and water in each. Next, of vegetable food. The multi¬ 
tudinous articles in use of this kind differ far more from 
each other in composition, as may be seen in the following 
table: 
Proximate analysis of food. 
Albumen. 
Starch. 
Husk. 
Water. 
Wheat..... 
.... 15 . 
. 57 . 
. 15 . 
. 13 
Corn . 
.... 14 . 
. 05 . 
. 7 .. .. 
.. 14 
Oats . 
.... 15 . 
. 40 . 
. 33 . 
. 12 
Buckwheat. 
.... 6 . 
. 64 . 
. 14 . 
. 16 
Barley. . 
.... 14 . 
. 44 . 
. 28 . 
. 14 
Potatoes.. 
.... 2 . 
. 18 . 
. 5 . 
. 75 
Turnips . 
.... 2 . 
. 8 . 
. 5 . 
. 85 
Dry Cornstalks 
... 9 . 
. 40 . 
. 30 . 
. 21 
A word respecting the temperature of the body and the 
consumption of food. 
If the knowledge that modern science affords in regard to 
these was properly diffused, how great would be the advan¬ 
tage to agriculturists. We witness every day in winter strik¬ 
ing examples of the want of such knowledge, in the instances 
of farmers turning cattle from an atmosphere] 60 degrees 
above to one 10 to 15 below zero. The animal’s body is a 
heated mass, which bears the same relation to surrounding 
objects as any other heated mass. In the animal body the 
food is the fuel; the body is a furnace or stove. A stove, 
we all know, will not give out heat without fuel, neither can 
the body of an animal generate heat without consuming 
food; hence the farmer, by exposing his cattle to a “ cold 
north wind,” not only wastes the produce of his farm, but 
also injures the health of his stock; “want of warmth is 
