86 
W. B. NILES. 
food-stuffs. It would require twelve pounds of each daily, 
and this would also give the required two pounds of nitrogen¬ 
ous food stuffs. But in practice it is impossible to feed just 
enough and no more. Therefore we must feed an excess of 
food, but in order for our patient to get along with as little 
oxygen as possible, we wish to avoid any excess of nitrogen¬ 
ous food, and to do this we must give him food deficient in 
nitrogen. The rough foods fulfilling this requirement are 
oat-straw, marsh hay, prairie hay and corn-fodder, and the 
grains most nearly approaching this proportion are corn, 
barley and oats. 
Another point I wish to bring up is this : We all know 
that starving a broken-winded horse helps very much to re¬ 
duce the labored breathing. It seems to be the general be¬ 
lief that this result is brought about simply by the mechanical 
effect of a comparatively empty state of the stomach and 
intestines giving more room for the lungs and less work for 
the muscles of respiration. While this idea is correct so far 
as it goes, it seems that another important point is often over¬ 
looked, viz.: An animal fasting and perfectly quiet requires 
only two-thirds as much oxygen as when quiet and digesting 
a meal. The same rule holds good in ordinary labor. When 
the period of fasting is prolonged the difference must be 
greatly increased, as the amount of oxygen used is directly 
proportional to the amount of tissue destroyed, and it is 
found by experiment that a small dog loses eight per cent, of 
his weight in the first twenty-four hours of fasting, while on 
the fifth day he loses only three per cent, of his original 
weight. 
SOME REMARKS ON THE TREATMENT OF WOUNDS IN THE 
DOMESTIC ANIMALS/ 
W. B. Niles, D.V.M. 
Professor of Surgery, Veterinary Department Iowa Agricultural College, Ames, Iowa. 
Although wounds in man and the lower animals are simi¬ 
lar, as far as causation and repair are concerned, there must of 
* Reprinted from The Vis Medicatrix. 
