The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-02-21

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similable, and are called Hesh-formers,
or plastic principles Among the res
piratory principles, brought together
under the name of sugars, shall dis
tinguish number of different kinds
such as the sugars, properly speaking,
and also starchy and woody matters,
which are transferable into glucose
sugars by digestion, and are known
chemically as hydrocarbons, because
formed of water and carbon. They are
the true heat-producers in the animal
body. These are abundant in all for
ages, and they undergo kind of slow
combustion in the blood; being trans
formed continually in the blood, by the
oxygen of the breath, into water and
carbonic acid. This combustion in
beast of 500 kilos II 100 pounds] often
amounts to from six to eight kilos
daily, thirteen to eighteen pounds ].
This will not be astonishing, when we
understand that the blood makes its
outward and return trip through the
body in twenty-six to twenty-eight
heart-beats, that is to say in less than
a minute, in the largest animals.
The true sugars, being quickly solu-
BILE, are the first to be taken up by the
blood vessels of the stomach; which
convey them to the liver, and thence,
by way of the heart, to all parts of the
body, as heating material. The starchy
elements, first transformed to glucose
in digestion, are next absorbed, partly
in the stomach, and partly in the intes-
tines. The woody material is more
slowly disposed of; but it is mainly dis
solved, and taken up by the chyle YES
sells of the intestines, while, at the
same time, the fatty matters are emul-
sionized and the protein elements d.
gested, and the products of both passed
into the general system, through the
blood. This successive absorption of
the respiratory elements, or principles,
is eminently advantageous in sustain
ing and equalizing the bodily temper
ature within the slightly variable limits
so necessary to the proper activity of
the animal system. The cellulose,
being the most slowly digested of the
food elements, seems especially i'm
portant to working animals, which can
only eat at considerable intervals when
at work, yet have very active respi-
ration; and for that reason need good
supply of successfully digestible food.
A diet poor in cellulose, but rich in
sugar, like beets, for example, or very
starchy food, like potatoes-gives too
much combustible matter at the start,
induces sweating, and may cause dam
gerous chilling, because lacking a suf-
ficient store of respiratory food, adapted
to the needs Of the animal.
These respiratory foods, however,
serve not alone as heat producers, for
they are the source of origin for similar
elements in the animal body, or in the
products; such as the sugar of milk,
and substance called inosite, which is
found in the muscles.
The organic acids, in small amounts,
fulfill like purpose as the saccharine
and starchy matters, they are warmth
givers; but they have besides that
digestive action, more or less useful as
solvents of protein substances and min
eral salts, particularly of the carbonate
and the phosphate of lime. They have,
however, less importance than the
others, because they are generally much
less abundant in forages, except the
Tactic acid, which is produced in sour
milk and fermenting green vegetable
matter like ensilage, and acetic acid,
produced in the souring of -four paste
and the pulp of fruits, or in sweet sub
stances exposed to the air. The other
acids exist only in very small amounts
in ordinary forages.
A few other respiratory principles,
such as alcohol, ether, essential oils and
resins (Which cannot exist in any con-
siderable quantity in the blood current
without grave disorder) are consumed
in proportion to their absorption, and
rapidly increase the animal heat, be-
cause they are speedily absorbed, and
very heating. 1t is as excitants of the
respiration, and consequently the de-
stroyers of the assimilated protein, that
alcoholic fluids momentarily increase
energy. The hull of oat contains a
brown, uncrystalizable substance, solu-
BILE in alcohol, which has the prop
erty of exciting the motor cells of the
nervous system of horses. 1t is sort
of alkaloid (avenine), which exists in
all kinds of oats, but in very different
proportions. 1t is more abundant in
black than in white oats, especially in
Russian varieties, which have about
nine parts in thousand or little less
than one per cent of the substance.