CHEMICAL PHYSIOLOGY. 97 



food, the loss from intestinal putrefaction is a factor to be 

 reckoned with ; and F. Hirschfeld (Berl. klin. Woch., xxx. 

 324), who has shown that less proteid is compatible with 

 health than was formerly supposed, insists that the 

 weight, volume, and digestibility of proteid food are as 

 important in the construction of dietaries as the considera- 

 tion of their chemical composition. C. Schulz-Schultz- 

 enstein (Zeit. physiol. Chem., xviii. 131) shows that infu- 

 sions of tea and coffee considerably impede artificial gastric 

 digestion. Allied questions are taken up by L. Breisacher 

 (Dent, vied. Woch., 1891, No. 48), who, by experiments 

 on himself, determined that 87 grammes of albumin are 

 sufficient per diem ; by C. Adrian {Zeit. physio/. Chan., 

 xvii. 616), who shows in dogs the increased value of proteid 

 food when taken in four successive meals in the day instead 

 of all in one dose ; by W. Heerlein (P Auger's Archiv, Hi. 

 165), who shows that in rabbits the value of coffee is due to 

 its stimulant action on the nervous system, and that it is not 

 a food. 



The never-ending subject of alcohol has been the cause 

 of several papers, among which may be particularly men- 

 tioned one by C. v. Noorden {BerL klin. Woch., 1891, No. 

 23), who concludes that the calories of alcohol are well 

 utilised with richly nitrogenous food, but not otherwise ; and 

 another by Strassman (PAiiger's Archiv, xlix. 315), who 

 calculated that 90 per cent, of alcohol in moderate doses is 

 utilised in the body. 



A number of other papers on the nutritive value of 

 foods and drugs we can only mention in passing ; these 

 are : on the nutritive value of bread, by Zuntz and Magnus- 

 Levy (ibid., xlix. 438) ; of asparagine, by G. Politis (Zeit. 

 Biol., xxvii. 492), and by J. Mauthner (ibid., xlix. 507) ; of 

 acetic acid, by A. Mallevre (PAiiger's Archiv, xlix. 460), 

 and of cellulose, by N. Zuntz (ibid., xlix. 477) ; on the 

 absorption of iron, see Kunkel (ibid., 1. 1), Macallum 

 (Proc. Roy. Soc, 1. 277), R. Stockman (Brit. Med. Jour., 

 1893, i- 88 1, 942), and C. T. Morner (Zeit. physiol. Che?;/., 

 xviii. 13). 



On general metabolism, there are several important 



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