1914] Isaac King Phelps 449 



Reduction processes in plant and soll. M. X. Sullivan. 

 (Bur. of Soils, U. S. Dep't of Agric.) Plant roots possess the 

 power to reduce ammonium molybdate to the blue oxide MOgOg, 

 and to reduce a mixture of para-nitroso-dimethyl aniline and alpha 

 naphthol to naphthol blue. The first reduction is favored by a 

 slightly acid medium and occurs predominantly within the paren- 

 chyma cells just back of the root tip. It is probably due to nonen- 

 zymotic products. The second reduction is not particularly local- 

 ized, and is retarded by dilute acids; favored by dilute alkalies. 

 Certain soils likewise have the power to form naphthol blue from a 

 mixture of paranitroso-dimethyl aniline and alpha naphthol. Soils 

 possessing this power do not oxidize easily oxidizable substances 

 such as aloin. Conversely, so far as investigated, soils acting on 

 aloin do not form naphthol blue. 



The passage of nucleic acid from plant to medium. M. X. 

 Sullivan. {Bur. of Solls, U. S. Dep't of Agric.) In the water 

 in which wheat had grown for sixteen days, with change of water 

 every two days, material was found which was soluble in dilute 

 alkali, precipitated by dilute acids and alcohol, contained phosphorus, 

 gave the pentose reaction and, after hydrolysis with dilute acidgave 

 reactions for a reducing sugar and purin bases, such as guanin 

 (determined by color reaction and formation of the hydrochloride) 

 and adenin (determined by color reaction). The material was 

 judged to be nucleic acid. 



The composition and nutritive value of proprietary Infant 

 foods. F. C. Weber and F. C. Cook. {Animal Physiol. Lab., 

 Bur. of ehem., U. S. Dep't of Agric.) Chemical, bacteriological, 

 and microchemical examinations were made of 36 proprietary infant 

 foods. The nitrogenous constituents were separated, and analyses 

 were made of the water extracts and of the ash. The foods, pre- 

 pared according to the manufacturers' directions for a three-month 

 formula, were analyzed. Charts based on the analyses of the foods 

 and on the three-month formulas were prepared and the foods 

 classified according to their composition and method of preparation 

 for feeding. 



The results of feeding the three-month mixtures to rats, mice 

 and kittens, and the nutritive value and ratios of these mixtures, 

 were tabulated. The chemical deficiencies and abnormal nutritive 



