Mineral Content of Southern Poultry Feeds 
9 
In giving minerals in the feed, the changes that follow in the stomach 
and intestines are of interest. 
Magnesium carbonate is an antiacid and neutralizes abnormal acid¬ 
ity, due to fermentation when exhibited after meals. It unites with 
the gastric juice to form chlorides, lactates, and bicarbonates. The 
acidity of the milk may also be partially neutralized. These com¬ 
pounds are milk saline purgatives. The carbonate of magnesium 
renders alkaline the blood and urine, and is a slight diuretic. It 
resembles potassium and sodium bicarbonate, as antiacids, but is 
milder because feebly absorbed. 
Phosphorus, when given in small doses to growing animals, appar¬ 
ently stimulates the bone making cells, or osteoblasts, and the growth 
of denser bone, both from cartilage and periosteum. In fowl, the mar¬ 
row cavity may be wholly obliterated by the deposition of hard bone 
through the ingestion of phosphorus. Phosphorus is apparently a 
nerve stimulant. Phosphorus is absorbed largely in an unchanged 
condition, in solution, in fatty matter, in the bowels, and as vapor. 
Some of the phosphorus is probably converted in the bowels and blood 
into phosphoreted hydrogen (PH 3), and further oxidized into phos¬ 
phoric acid in the body. The fate is unknown but some phosphorus 
is eliminated as vapor from the lungs, and some inorganic com¬ 
pounds in the urine. Vegetables supply much potassium salts. 
Calcium salts mostly pass unchanged through the bowels. A small 
amount is absorbed and eliminated by the large bowel and by the 
kidneys. Calcium chloride causes the blood to coagulate more quickly 
and, for this purpose, has been used therapeutically. Calcium car¬ 
bonate is one of the slowest acting antiacids, because of its compara¬ 
tive insolubility. It is excreted unchanged in the feces. 
Sodium chloride is constantly being eliminated by the urine. Accord¬ 
ing to Bunge, potassium salts on entering the blood bring about a 
chemical reaction, whereby the sodium chloride circulating in the 
plasma is split; the chloride in sodium chloride combines with potas¬ 
sium, while the acid set free from the potassium salt unites with sodium 
and both products are swept away with the urine, thus removing sodium 
chloride from the blood. This must be replaced by that taken in by the 
feed. Animals deprived of sufficient sodium chloride suffer from 
anemia, general weakness and edema. Large doses causes irritation 
of the stomach and bowels. Sodium chloride augments the red blood 
corpuscles. Salt solutions in the blood withdraw fluid lymph from the 
tissues by osmotic action. In this way they appear to stimulate change, 
as there is an increased elimination of nitrogen in the urine. Vascular 
tension is augmented and activity of the Malpighian bodies, and 
therefore diuresis. 
