text:  How prevalent was the notion at one time that horses could not be expected to do work at all unless there was _hard meat_ in them! 'This is a very silly and erroneous idea if we inquire into it ' as Professor Dick truly observes 'for whatever may be the consistency of the food when taken into the stomach it must before the body can possibly derive any substantial support or benefit from it be converted into _chyme_--a pultacious mass; and this as it passes onward from the stomach into the intestinal canal is rendered still more fluid by the admixture of the secretions from the stomach the liver and the pancreas when it becomes of a milky appearance and is called _chyle_