INVESTIGATIONS IN HUMAN NUTRITION. 371 



Of vspecial studies of food composition with reference to nutritive 

 value may be mentioned the following, which are also noteworthy 

 for the contribution they make to the subject of experimental 

 methods. 



Grindley and Woods '^ have developed methods for determining 

 creatin and creatinin in meats and their products. They used the 

 colorimetric method described by Folin and found it applicable to 

 cooked and uncooked meats as well as such products as meat extract. 



Osborne and Heyl ^ studied the hydrolysis of fish muscle and deter- 

 mined the amounts of nitrogen ])resent in different forms. The 

 nitrogen contained in the histidin, arginin, and lysin was 4.16 per 

 cent, 0.79 per cent less than the basic nitrogen precipitated by 

 phosphotungstic acid, a difference believed to be due to the presence 

 in the muscle of basic substances of nonprotein origin. 



During the last few years numerous papers by T. B. Osborne 

 have appeared in various scientific journals regarding proteids of 

 maize, of wheat, and of other seeds and grains. The report of his 

 investigation on the proteids of the wheat kernel, recently published 

 by the Carnegie Institution of Washington/ is one of the most 

 exhaustive and valuable discussions of the nitrogenous constituents 

 of wheat which has appeared and summarizes a large amount of the 

 author's experimental work. 



Other contributions by Osborne and his associates to this impor- 

 tant series of investigations carried on at the Connecticut State 

 Experiment Station are studies of the hydrolysis of vicilin^ and of the 

 legumelin of peas;* the viginin of the cowpea {Vigna sinensis) •/ the 

 hydrolysis of vitellin from the hen's egg;? the hydrolysis of the muscle 

 of scallop;'^ the hydrolysis of crystallized albumen from hen's egg;* 

 and the hydrolysis of ox muscle..' 



In a summary of the work with reference to the different forms of 

 nitrogen, in proteins,^ some important deductions are included on 

 determinations of the actual quantities of histidin, arginin, and lysin 

 obtained in the cleavage products of protein which show that they 

 vary markedly, particularly as to the yield of arginin and lysin and 

 that proteids, "when arranged in the order of their yield of arginin, 



a Jour. Biol, rhem., 2 (1907), No. 4, p. 309. 



^'Amcr. Jour. Physiol., 23 (1908), No. 2, p. 81. 



c Carnegie Institution of Washington, Pub. 84. 



d Jour. Biol. Chem., 5 (1908), Nos. 2-3, p. 187. 



«Jour. Biol. Chom., 5 (1908), Nos. 2-3, p. 197. 



/Amer. Jour. Physiol., 22 (1908), No. 3, p. 362. 



<7lbid., 24 (1909), No. 1, p. 153. 



/ilbid., p. 161. 



«■ Ibid., No. 2, p. 252. 



Hbid., 24 (1909), No. 5, p. 437. 



*Ibid., 23 (1908), No. 3, p. 180. 



