[Veterinary surgeon Gottfried Carl Haubner (1806-1882)--promoter of scientific animal nutrition].

The veterinary surgeon G. C. HAUBNER (1806-1882) was teacher for veterinary science at the Royal prussian academia for agriculture in Eldena near Greifswald (1836-1852) and at the royal school of veterinary science in Dresden (1853-1879). He stimulated animal nutrition in different ways. First of all he disclosed the theoretical gaps in the field of animal nutrition during the first half of the 19th century, furthermore he transferred the knowledge in agriculture chemistry and animal physiology to feeding praxis and altogether he favoured the transition from the empirical to the scientific based animal nutrition, last not least by starting exactly planned and practiced feeding experiments (s. Table 2). Most remarkable are his very early work on digestion physiology in ruminants (1837), his proof (1854), that fiber is digestible in ruminants or horses as well as his investigations on nutrition related diseases in cattle (smelting-house-smoke- and deficiency-diseases).