280 The Ohio Journal of Science [Vol. XVIII, No. 7, 



Alendel and Fine'' found the protein in mush prepared from 

 soy beans to be from 74.5 to 87.6 per cent digestible by dogs 

 and 85.3 per cent digestible by men (uncorrected values). In 

 fact the protein of so^^ beans was only 2.6 per cent less digestible 

 than was the protein in a mixed diet of wheat, meat, eggs and 

 peanut butter. The protein of the common white bean, baked 

 in the usual way, was distinctly less digestible, viz., 77.9 per 

 cent, in the human subject. The experiments of Wait^ on the 

 digestibility of white beans agree with this result. Daniels and 

 Nichols,*^ from experiments on rats, have concluded that the 

 proteins of the soy bean are highly efficient in promoting the 

 growth of young animals, in fact, about as efficient as casein of 

 milk. On the other hand, the proteins of the white bean appear 

 to be decidedly poorer in quality or about as valuable as the 

 proteins of corn.^ Osborne and MendeP found in soy beans 

 abundant amounts of water-soluble accessory or vitamine, while 

 the fat-soluble vitamine, though not abundant, appears to 

 exceed the amount found in other seeds and grains commonly 

 used for human food. 



The nutritive quality of the white bean is further lowered 

 by the presence of considerable amounts of carbohydrates, 

 e. g., hemicelluloses, which are indigestible in man, and which 

 ferment in the intestine with the production of large quantities 

 of gas, resulting in discomfort and even in injury to the intestine 

 because of the stretching effect of the gas." The carbohydrates 

 of the soy bean, while resembling those of the white bean, appear 

 to be considerably more digestible and less prone to intestinal 

 fermentation. Mendel and Fine^ in comparable experiments 

 with dogs, fed in one case soy bean flour and in the other a 

 preparation made from hulled white beans, and found five 

 times as much fiber and over three times as much hemicellulose 

 in the feces of the white bean fed animal. In the human subject 

 the weight of the air dry feces from the soy bean feeding was 

 increased only four per cent above the mixed diet period, while 

 on the white bean diet the increase in weight of air dry feces 

 was 68 per cent, indicating a good utilization of the non- 

 nitrogenous material in the first case and a poor utilization in 

 the second. In our own experiments the liberal use of soy bean 

 meal in the diet, 120 grams per day for a three-day period, did 

 not result in voluminous stools, on the contrary, both the protein 

 and carbohydrates (N-free extract) of the soy bean meal was 

 highly digestible, as will appear from the following experiment. 



