FOODS HUMAN NUTRITION. 869 



consists of vegetable products exelusivoly or of vegetables with milk iiroducts. 

 The diet is much like that of farmers iu the same region, though somewhat 

 better, in tlie author's opinion. The dietary study reported covered 1 week. 



According to the author's calculations, the brothers' diet supi)lied 130 gm. of 

 protein and 3.500 calories of energy per day and that of the lay brothers 155 gm. 

 of protein and 4,540 calories. The work of the brothers was light to moderate 

 and that of the lay brothers severe, being equivalent, the author estimates, to 

 3,300 and 4,250 calories, respectively. The average body weight was about 

 70 kg. The diet though simple is regarded as palatable and satisfactory. 



A study of the creatin excretion did not show that it bore any direct relation 

 to the diet or to the amount of work performed. 



Feeding experim.ents with cleavage products of nutrients — solution of 

 the problem of the artificial synthesis of nutrients, E. Abderhai,den ( Hnppc- 

 Seyh'r''s Ztschr. I'liysioi. Chcm., 77 (1912), No. 1. pp. 22-58). — Continuing pre- 

 vious work (E. S. R., 22, p. 769), the author found it possible to sustain the 

 organism on a diet consisting exclusively of the final cleavage iiroducts of 

 various proteins. 



Experiments were also made in which monosaecharid and a mixture of 

 glycerin fatty acids were used with protein cleavage products. From his experi- 

 mental data the author reaches the important genei'al conclusion that the ani- 

 mal body can build up all its cell constituents from the simplest nutrient 

 substances. 



The author finds that a protein which contains amino acids in a proportion 

 unlike that found in the body tissues is not so well utilized as one which under 

 hydrolysis yields them in the quantities in which they are found in cell pro- 

 tein. From this point of view most plant proteins are less well utilized than 

 those of animal origin ; and less protein of animal origin is required by the 

 organism. 



The practical application of this seems to the author to be in favor of a mixed 

 diet. In general, the animal organism is able to build up all its parts from 

 the simplest cleavage products, being much better able to accomplish such syn- 

 thesis than is generally supposed. The question arises whether chemistry 

 to-day is in a position to reproduce all the cleavage products in the laboratory. 

 According to the author, this is quite possible, and only time and money are 

 required to complete the demonstration. 



Under ordinary conditions the fact that nutrients and their cleavage products 

 may be artificially jn-oduced is not likely to be of great practical importance, 

 but in therapeutics, etc.. the author believes that, in the future, artificial prepa- 

 rations of cleavage products will be used for all subcutaneous and intravenal 

 applications. An appendix contains the results of studies of several protein 

 cleavage products. 



Protein metabolism from the standpoint of blood and tissue analysis, I, 

 O. FoLiN and W. Denis (Jour. Biol. Chcm., 11 (1912), No. 1, pp. S7-.95).— The 

 work here reported is an attempt to discover the fate of the amino acids formed 

 in the intestine as a result of the digestion of protein. 



According to the authors, nearly all previous workers, besides being ham- 

 pered by the lack of suitable analytical methods for investigating the nonpro- 

 tein nitrogen of blood, " have conducted their investigations from a point of 

 view which almost completely eliminated the possibility of accounting for the 

 amino acids absorbed as such from the digestive tract. The blood has been 

 regarded as essentially a closed system, closed physiologically as well as 

 anatomically, and except for the supiK)sed effective deamidizing power of the 

 liver they have worked on the assumption that the amino acids absorbed from 

 the intestine should heap up in the blood to such an extent that they could 



