The Mineral Elements in Animal Nutrition1

Abstract

SINCE the time of Lavoisier, research in nutrition has been directed chiefly to the chemistry and metabolism of organic compounds, i.e. proteins, fats, carbohydrates and allied substances, and in tables of rations the food requirements of animals have been expressed in terms of these or their equivalents. During the past half-century, however, an increasing number of workers have become interested in the role played by inorganic salts in nutrition. The information being yielded by the researches of these workers is throwing new light on many fundamental problems of biology, and some of it appears to be of potential economic value in animal husbandry.