Animal food

“ When animal food can be procured, they prefer it to any other; but, in times of scarcity, they are sometimes compelled to subsist on sea-weeds, and on roots dressed in train-oil and fat. The intestines of animals, and offals of various kinds, are accounted by them as dainties. ”

“ Animal food has a wider range than is usually included under that head. The vegetarian who announces that no animal food is allowed upon his table offers a meal in which one finds milk, eggs, butter, and cheese,—all forms of animal food, and all strongly nourishing. ”

“ Frequently, we may say in the majority of cases, a small amount of animal food, especially game, fowls, fish, and soups, with fresh vegetables, and ripe fruits, will be far more invigorating than heavier foods. ”

“ The second general division of food, embraces articles which serve perfectly to nourish and develop every animal organ, but, at the same time, increase the speed and strength of all functional action beyond the point which is attained by the system, when fully and perfectly nourished by vegetables, fruits, and bread-stuffs. There is no dispute among physiologists and physicians as to the fact, that animal food produces chyle which is more stimulating to the various organs, than that which is formed from an exclusive vegetable diet. ”

“ The lion, tiger and other animals which live exclusively on animal food, give no evidence of being better nourished than the deer, the ox, and animals which subsist wholly on vegetable food; but the apparatus for digestion in each class is constructed with an evident adaptation to the kind of diet on which the different animals subsist.
In man the digestive apparatus is more extensive than in flesh-eating animals, but is less complicated [Pg 135] than in those which are confined to vegetable food alone. Man is therefore omnivorous, both in his structure and in his habits. ”

“ On such a range it is not necessary to have so great a proportion of animal food in the mash, because the floral growth harbors myriads of worms and insects, which supply a large part of the animal food needed. ”

“ Animal Food.—The most advantageous animal food for fowls, and on which they make the most rapid and healthy progress, consists in the worms, snails and insects that they obtain naturally when unconfined; I do not think that there is any other kind of food which conduces so much to their healthy condition ”

“ The flesh and the blood of other animals of all kinds, warm or cold, the leaves, twigs, fruits, juices of plants, putrid carcases, hair, feathers, skin, bran, sawdust, the vegetable mould or "humus" of the earth's surface, the sand of the sea, with its minute particles of organic detritus, all serve as food to different kinds of animals. Some are very little fettered in their tastes, and are called "omnivorous," others are bound in the strictest way to a diet consisting of the leaves of some one species of plant or the juices of one species of animal. ”

“ This classification, however, is sufficiently exact for the practical purposes of a food manual and, therefore, under the head of meat is included the edible flesh of mammals living on the land.
Animals Whose Flesh is Edible. —Probably the only complete classification of this kind would be to include every animal living on the face of the earth since, perhaps, the flesh of every animal living has been more or less eaten by man. In a civilized community, however, except in times of disaster and dire necessity, certain classes of animals only furnish the principal meat food. ”

“ Though not absolutely essential to them, yet nothing contributes so much to their laying, as unsalted, animal food. This is a natural aliment, as is shown by the avidity with which they pounce on every fly, insect, or earth-worm which comes within their reach. ”

“ Fish, Foxes, Hawks, Venison, Horses, have their Substance [38] more liable to Putrefaction, and discover to our Senses more exalted Salts and Oyls, than tame Fowl, Sheep, and Oxen; the Juices of poisonous Animals have them still more exalted, as in the Viper.
Animal Substances being already assimilated, are more easily transmutable into other Animals, and therefore more nourishing than Vegetables; accordingly we find such Animals as are nourished by animal Food, to be more couragious, robust, active, bold, strong, than those which are nourished by Vegetables only. ”

“ The ourang-outang, on being domesticated, readily learns to eat animal food. But if this proves that animal to be omnivorous, then the Horse, Cow, Sheep, and others are all omnivorous, for everyone of them is easily trained to eat animal food. Horses have frequently been trained to eat animal food, [267] and Sheep have been so accustomed to it as to refuse grass. ”

“ Again, if man subsisted wholly on uncooked food, he would not only be preserved from improper concentrations, but also from pernicious combinations of alimentary substances. The alimentary organs of man, like those of the horse, ox, sheep, dog, cat, and most or all other animals of the higher orders, if not in fact, of all other animals without limitation, possess the vital capability of so accommodating themselves to emergencies, that they can be made to digest almost every vegetable and animal substance in nature ”

“ In the best times that class of people seldom could indulge in animal food, and they were in use to support themselves in part with the blood taken from their cattle at different periods, made into puddings or bread with a mixture of oatmeal. ”

“ It is highly advantageous to fowls to allow them a reasonable quantity of animal food for their diet, which should be fed to them in small pieces, both for safety and convenience. Bones and meat may be boiled ”

“ They are then fed on equal parts of corn meal, wheat-bran and low-grade flour, with about twelve or fifteen per cent. of animal food. One fourth of this food should be composed of vegetables cooked—say, small potatoes, turnips, etc., with all the green rye and refuse cabbage they will eat. We feed this compound morning and evening with a little corn, wheat and oats at noon. Feed all the birds will eat clean and no more. The birds, young and old, may be expected to lay in three weeks from the time they are housed. ”

“ Pigs, on the one hand, and bears, on the other, tend naturally to a mixed diet. Many birds, under conditions adverse to the finding of their usual food, will change from vegetable to animal diet, or vice-versâ. Sea-gulls normally are fish-eaters, but some will eat biscuit and grain when fish cannot be had. Pigeons have been fed successfully on a meat diet; so, too, some parrots, and also the familiar barn-door fowl. Many of our smaller birds eat both insects and grain, according to opportunity. ”

“ We find an animal like the lion feeding entirely upon the flesh of other animals, and a strong creature like the ox, eating nothing but grass and grain. We also note that one race of men includes meat in its diet, and another subsists almost entirely upon vegetable food, such as rice and beans. Yet in both cases, these diverse kinds of food accomplish the same end,—body building and the supplying of energy. ”

“ It is an interesting fact that the gastric juice varies in different classes of animals, according to the food on which they subsist; thus in birds of prey as kites, hawks, and owls, it only acts on animal matter, and does not dissolve vegetables; in other birds, and in all animals feeding on grass, as oxen, sheep, and hares, it dissolves vegetable matter, as grass, but will not touch flesh of any kind. ”

“ The bony framework of the animal owes its solidity to phosphate of lime, and this substance must be furnished by the food. A perfect food must supply the animal with these three classes of bodies, and in proper proportions. The addition of a small quantity of a food, rich in oil and albuminous substances, to the ordinary kinds of feed, which contain a large quantity of vegetable fibre or woody matter, more or less indigestible, but, nevertheless, indispensable to the herbivorous animals, their digestive organs being adapted to a bulky food, has been found highly advantageous in practice. ”

“ It is quite nocturnal, issuing forth at dark, and living by preference on animal food, rats, lizards, small birds, poultry, and eggs; but it also freely partakes of vegetable food, fruit, and insects. ”

“ “Among other dreadful and disgusting images which Custom has rendered familiar, are those which arise from eating animal food. He who has ever turned with abhorrence from the skeleton of a beast which has been picked whole by birds or vermin, must confess that habit alone could have enabled him to endure the sight of the mangled bones and flesh of a dead carcase which every day cover his table. ”

“ No animal eats such variety of food as man; he claims, more justly than any other creature, the title of omnivorous! for since he is distinguished beyond all animals, but the capability of living in the most distant parts of the globe, under every variety of climate which the earth affords, his food could not be confined exclusively to either the vegetable or animal kingdom, because he inhabits regions that afford aliments widely different from each other. Cattle content themselves with green vegetables; [7] rapacious animals live on the flesh of other creatures. ”

“ They had a small orchard to range in, where, in the course of the day, they occasionally picked up worms and other insects; and, I have observed that poultry of all kinds eagerly seek for animal food even after they have satiated themselves with corn: indeed, I conceive a portion of animal food essentially requisite to preserve them in a healthy state. ”

“ Existing, as these always do, in a liquid form, unless this is carefully guarded against, these palatable and health-giving essences of all animal food, both tame and game, are apt to be wasted and dissipated in various forms, when the exercise of mature judgment and a little care would confine them to these meats in the course of preparation. ”

“ We are carnivorous, as well as granivorous animals, having systems requiring animal, as well as vegetable food, to keep all the organs of the body in tune; and perhaps we need a greater variety than other animals. ”

“ Like my friend the Doctor, I have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables, which constitute my principal diet. ”

“ The quantity so procured depends greatly upon the appetite of the animal, and the quality of his nourishment, as he always produces more in proportion to the goodness of his food. Hashed flesh, eggs, rice, small animals, birds, young poultry, and particularly fish, are the best, and which he most prefers; and these ought to be so varied as to excite his appetite and preserve his health. He requires but [127] little water, and though he drinks seldom, yet he discharges urine very frequently; and even on such occasions, the male is not to be distinguished from the female. ”

“ From the number of animals under experiment, and the well-planned and thorough methods of investigation, in all departments of the experimental work, the results obtained have been of great value, not only from the light thrown on many of the obscure processes of nutrition, but also in laying a foundation for a consistent system of feeding, in which the relations of the food consumed to the special animal products obtained, and to the value of the manure produced, as an incident of the process, are clearly traced. ”

“ Food.—As the animal suffers from want of space in the chest, so the distension of the stomach with an undue quantity of food tends much to increase the difficulty. Hence the most condensed form of food is best, plenty of oats and little hay, but no chaff, straw, or bloating feed, water in moderate quantities, but never to repletion until the day’s work is over. Green food, carrots especially, are always useful. ”

“ Tame birds—geese, fowls, and doves, the last of which in particular are strict vegetarians—can, by the "withdrawal of their accustomed grain, be won over to the enjoyment of animal diet till they prefer it, and may finally have their new taste so highly cultivated that they will spurn vegetable food. ”

“ Because the Stomachs of locomotive Beings appear to have been provided for the purpose of conveying about, with the moving animal, nutritive Substances, analogous in effect to the Soil in which are fixed the roots of plants, and consequently nothing ought to he introduced into the stomach for Digestion and for Absorption by the Lacteals, or Roots of the Animal System, but the natural bases of simple Nutrition, as the saccharine, the oleaginous, and the farinaceous matter of the Vegetable Kingdom. ”

“ The repugnance to animal food is not the effect of experience, but is an instinct. ”

“ Under the influence of depraved appetite animals of the bovine species consume, apart from their regular food, the most varying substances, such as linen, fragments of wood, nails, stones, gravel, sand, etc. ”

“ The animals were happy as they had never conceived it possible to be. Every mouthful of food was an acute positive pleasure, now that it was truly their own food, produced by themselves and for themselves, not doled out to them by a grudging master. ”

“ In general the rodents feed on roots, vegetables, seeds, nuts, bark, leaves, or fruit; but some of them, as the rats, are fond of meat, and indeed devour anything in the shape of food, and are as ready to eat carrion as fresh diet. ”

“ They should be provided with whatever they most crave, if it be adapted to the secretion of fat. Cutting, crushing, and grinding the food; cooking, souring, and mixing it, are each by themselves an improvement for feeding ”

“ The avoidance of overwork, and of the exposure to cold and wet, and the securing of a free action of the skin by warm buildings and clothing, are essential. The diet should be easily digested and non-stimulating, for herbivora green food, carrots, roots, apples, silage, with a moderate allowance of oats to counteract weakness and anæmia; and for carnivora, milk, buttermilk, mush made of oat, wheat or barley meal, with, if necessary, a slight allowance of tender raw meat. Tonics fill a similar need. Iron and bitters may be combined. ”