372 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



fall into three groups. First the oil seeds, then the leguminous seeds, 

 and finiilly the cereal grains, the only exception being the glutelin of 

 maize, which is one of the least well characterized and studied of all 

 the proteins in the list, and may be a mixture of several different 

 proteins. 



Wo have in the chemical constitution of those seed proteins [Professor Osborne 

 elates] an apparent relationship not only to the biological relations of the plants which 

 produce them, but also to the chemical constitution of the seeds themselves. 



Chamberlain's ° work on wheat proteids should also be mentioned 

 in this connection. In collaboration with Saiki, '' he has also made 

 interesting studies of the proteids of marine algae, from which the 

 practical conclusion is drawn that Irish moss in invalid diet is useful 

 as a convenient vehicle for other materials rather than as having of 

 itself great food value. 



Jordan, Hart, and Patten, '^ and Mendel and Underbill,*^ have 

 studied the occurrence of phytin in bran and its effects upon the 

 animal organism. From its laxative and other physiological effects 

 this substance is of importance in considering the value of the coarser 

 milling products of wheat and other grains. 



Hart and his associates « at the Wisconsin Station have continued 

 the studies of the role of inorganic phosphorus in the nutrition of 

 animals which was begun at the New York State Experiment Station, 

 pigs being used as subjects. The results obtained as is the case with 

 so many lines of experiment station investigations in which farm 

 animals serve as subjects, are general in their purpose, and the results 

 are applicable to physiological problems with human beings as well 

 as with animals. It is pointed out in a discussion of the results 

 obtained that — 



The marked reduction on the quantity of ash of the bones of the animal receiving 

 an insufficient supply of calcium phosphates, together with the ability of the animal 

 to build up a skeleton very rich in calcium phosphate when an abundance of the latter 

 ifi supplied in inorganic forms, strongly points to the possession of a synthetic power 

 by the animal which enables it to convert inorganic forms of phosphorus into the 

 organic forms demanded by its body. 



Hart and his associates ^ have also reported data concerning the 

 ash constituents of wheat bran in the metabolism of herbivora, and 

 Hart and Tottingham s on the nature of the acid soluble phosphorus 

 compounds of a number of important feeding stuffs. 



o Jour. Amer. Chem. Soc, 28 (1906), No. 11, p. 1657. 

 6 Jour. Biol. Chem., 2 (1906), No. 3, p. 251. 



c New York State Sta. Tech. Bui. 1; also Amer. Jour. Physiol., 16 (1906), No. 2, 

 p. 268. 

 d Amer. Jour. Physiol., 17 (1906), No. 1, p. 75. 

 e Ibid., 23 (1909), No. 4, p. 246. 

 / Ibid., 24 (1909), No. 1, p. 86. 

 g Jour. Biol. Chem., 6 (1909), No. 5, p. 431. 



