The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-04-17
Effect of Food ON ID igestion.

A great number of diseases among domestic
animals arise fro o the bad economy of blood
induced by excess of water and deficiency of
nitrogenized matter. The practical farmer
knows that i fin the Landing season he gives
too much green food, which, growing rapidly,
contains large amout of water, it will form
the foundation of bad quality of blood, and
his flock. Whereas, If he put them on dry
food, or food deficient in water, and contain
ing per Sc, weight for weight, large pro-
portion of nitrogenized matter, good quality
of blood would be produced and the health of
the animals be preserved. Admitting that
cooked food has the effect of accumulating
weight, to say nothing about flesh, in GER
tain space of time, we would be inclined to
think that that resulted in treat measure
from the facility with which sch food was
digested. 1t was in fact partly made into
pulpy mass which must be the process that
took place with reference to the action of the
gastric juice. If we took the food in crude
state and gave it to pig or other simple
stomached animal, it became converted into
such a pulpy mass.
Food prepared by cooking supersedes mas
tication to a considerable extent; by super
seding mastication we supercede insalivation;
and by superseding insalivaticn, we will find
that all we put in the place of it was just the
chemical compounds formed by the process of
cooking. The result would be that this inter-
fered with the first process of converting food
into blood, and all food that ministers to the
nutriInent of the system mnst be converted
into blood; and tuus we arrested the natural
chemical process that ensued from the ming
ling of the saliva with the food. After the
carbon has entered into ruminant in sufi-
Gent quantity, and the animals wants have
been supplied, he ceases to feed; but If we
take the simple-stomached herbivorous animal,
the horse, we will find him at pasture eating
twenty hours out of the twenty-four; and the
reason is that it takes longer period to put
into his system the proper quantity OF carbon.
In the case OF the ruminative animal, nature
has made provision for stirring up the food.
and chemical changes are effected before it
passes into the stomach TO be digested. And
not only was this provision made in the ar
rangement of the stomach for that purpose,
but also for the remastication and reinsaliva-
ton of the food (the process of ''chewing the
cud"). When the food is within the rumen,
or paunch, it undergoes change, which Is
continued for longer time than when it is
iu the mouth; and being salivated it becomes
in reality mixed with larger amount Of
saliva. There must be a certain repletion in
the stomach to produce rumination, or throw
ing up of the ''cud;'' and the animal does
not ruminate with stomach only half filled
with food. He Eliminates when the rumen
is fairly filled, and 10 the process the food is
physically as well az chemically altered by
being retained within the rumen, exposed to
the action of the secretions that came from
the rumen.
1t is mistake to suppose that food which
has been ruminated goes at once into the
digestive stomach. That depends materially
upon the condition of the food; and it is even
possible, by giving cooked food, or food which
is physically in the same condition with re-
gard to fineness and moisture, to render anil
mails non-ruminative which are naturally
ruminatiye-that is to say, we might give
them food that would be retained for very
short space of time in the rumen, pass quickly
into the true digestive stomach and become
subject to the action OF digestion without
first undergoing reconsideration. Now there
we would interfere at once with the law of
nature; and we hold that if we cooked
food at all, we ought not to pulp it before
cooking it, or reduce it too fine. A fne-cut
chaff ought not to be cooked: but we might
with advantage cook chaf which is four to
six inches long, because the cooking would
set up the process of converting the amylace-
GUS parts into sugar, and it would not inter-
fere with the functions of the rumen; such
food would be remasticated, and become
mixed with the natural secretions. A great
deal depends, therefore, upon the state OF
the food before being exposed to the process
Of cooking; and that ought not to be lost
sight Of Speaking, then, on the subject gen
orally, we would be inclined to think that
cooking was not desirable as a whole. and
that everything we wish to gain IL TO be OBJ
tanned by giving food which is 80 prepared as
to be assimilated to masticated food 10 some
extent, aud to food which has been exposed
to the action OF the rnmen --PrdiTie Farmer.