597 
THE 
FOOD WE GIVE. 
Unazotised. 
100 lbs. 
Albumen. 
Matter. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
Flesh 
. 25 . 
. 0 
Blood 
. 20 . 
. 0 
Beans 
. 31 . 
. 5H 
Peas 
. 29 . 
. 51i 
Lentils 
. 33 . 
. 48 
Potatoes . 
. 2 . 
. 25 
Oats . 
. 11 . 
. 68 
Barley-meal 
. 14 . 
. m 
Hay. 
. 8 . 
. 68i 
Turnips 
. 1 . 
. 9 
Carrot 
. 2 . 
. 10 
Bed-beet . 
. H . . 
. 8i 
That fat exists ready formed in various vegetable sub¬ 
stances has been proved by careful chemical examination. 
Thus, according to Liebig, hay contains 1.56 per cent., 
and maize 4.67 per cent, of fat. Braconnet found 1.20 
per cent, in peas, while Fresenius got 2.1 percent.; and 
in lentils 1.3 per cent. Vogel obtained 2.00 per cent, of 
fat in oats; Liebig 0.3 per cent, in dry potatoes; and Bra- 
connotO. 13 per cent, in rice, although, in another variety, 
Vogel states that he detected 1.05 per cent. The substance 
here called fat is in reality a waxy or resinous body, and not 
tallow. 
Such were the valuable chemical researches which a 
quarter of a century since were instituted for the service of 
the agriculturist—labours which time has hardly rendered 
less valuable, although practical and long-continued observa¬ 
tions in the homestead may have modified some of the con¬ 
clusions of the chemist. In a recent prize essay on different 
descriptions of food for stock, by Mr. R. J. Thomson, of 
Kilmarnock, he has fairly summed up the evidence on this 
question in language which we need hardly attempt to vary 
(Trans. High. Soc., 1868, p. 52). He observes, ‘‘Liebig’s 
famous classification of food into nitrogenous and non-nitro- 
genous, or into flesh-forming and respiratory or heat-sup¬ 
porting, must ever be regarded as having marked an 
important epoch in the history of the chemisty of food. It 
opened a broad pathw^ay through a.tangled forest. Several 
years have now passed away, and the inexorable test of per¬ 
sonal experience has put it to the proof, but the result is, 
that the per-centage of nitrogen gives at the best but an 
approximate idea of the nutritive value of different kinds of 
food. No one believes, for example, that bean is as nutri¬ 
tious as flour, or that rapecake is equally valuable with linseed 
cake; yet their per-centages of nitrogen are practically 
