38 
CAUSTIC LI XT. 
the dry substance of the starch and sugar, which had thus 
been tried against each other, had been both consumed by a 
given weight of animal within a given time, and required to 
yield a given weight of increase. The identity, therefore, in 
feeding value, which had, from the known chemical relation¬ 
ship of these two substances, been hitherto assumed, was 
thus experimentally illustrated. If, therefore, sugar had no 
higher feeding value than starch, the relative prices, weight 
for weight, of sugar and the starchy grains generally used 
for feeding purposes, but which also supplied the needful 
nitrogenous constituents, would afford an easy means of 
estimating the probable economy of the use of the former. 
These new results were also consistent with direct experi¬ 
ments, published by the authors some time since, On the 
Comparative Feeding Value of Malted and Unmalted Grain.” 
It was true that malt and other saccharine matters might 
serve, in some degree, to give a relish to the food, and thus 
induce the animal to consume more, which in “fattening” is 
always a consideration ; but this incidental benefit could not 
counterbalance much increased cost; hence, it did not seem 
probable that any extensive use of malt for feeding purposes 
would be such a boon as had been supposed. The proved 
equivalency of starch and sugar in food was also of interest 
in reference to some other of the views maintained by the 
authors in their former paper. Thus, it had been shown that 
a fattening animal might store up very considerably more fat 
than existed ready formed in its food ; and this produced 
fat was, doubtless, in a great measure, due to the starchy and 
saccharine substances, which constitute so large a proportion 
of the non-nitrogenous constituents of our staple vegetable 
foods. It was these, too, which, in practice, served largely 
to meet the requirements of the respiratory function, which, 
it had been shown, under ordinary circumstances, measured 
to such an extent the amount of food demanded by the 
animal system. 
CAUSTIC LINT. 
M. Riboli has proposed to saturate lint with a solution 
of nitrate of silver, and then dry the lint. He uses different 
degrees of strength, so as to vary the activity of the appli¬ 
cation according to the nature of the sore. He states the 
solid form of the nitrate is often objectionable, and a solu¬ 
tion of it too transient in action. 
