FOODS IJUMAX XUTRITIOX. 657 



The chemistry of bread making, J. Grant (Loudon, J 912, pp. VIII +224, 

 pgs. JfH). — This voluiue deals with the application of science to the bread mak- 

 ing industry and is designeil as a guide for students in bread making. The 

 atmosphere, water, acids, alkalis, and salts are consideretl in relation to baking, 

 as well as bakery physics, cereals and their cliaracter and composition, milling, 

 ferments, yeasts, etc.. bread making processes, antiseptics and bakehouse 

 liygiene, fuels and ovens, cereal foods, and some related topics. A bibliography 

 is appended and an index is ])rovided. 



So-called chestnut bllg-ht poisoning, G. P. Clinton (Vonnccticut State Sta. 

 Rpt. J9JJf, pt. 1, pp. 30-42). — Since a number of cases of illness and a few 

 deaths attributed to eating chestnuts from blighted trees have been reported in 

 the public press, an investigation was undertaken to determine whether or not 

 ♦ lie blight fungus was poisonous and tbus responsible for such trouble as had 

 been implied. 



According to the author's conclusions, the investigations showed that there 

 may have been some relation between the illness of at least some of the persons 

 and the eating of chestnuts. The illness might have been duo "to overeating 

 or to the eating of immature or partially germinated chestnuts, or to the age 

 and physical couditiou of the persons who were made sick, or to a combination 

 of these factors. 



•'On the other hand, there was no evidence discovered that the blight fungus 

 or other fungi were directly connected with tlie sickness, since experimental 

 feeding of white rats with these fungi failed to produce any injurious effects. 

 Small amounts of pure cultures of the blight were also eaten by the writer 

 without ill effect. 



"The only connection the blight could have with such sickness would be 

 indirect, the trees being so injured thereby as to produce a greater projjortion 

 than us»)al of nuts not perfectly matured which possibly contained some self- 

 produced poisonous principle ; but even this supposition does not seem very 

 probable." 



Supposed poisonous properties of chestnuts grown on trees affected with 

 chestnut blight, C. D. Marsh {Jour. Auier. Med. Assoc, 63 {1914), ^'o. 1, pp. 

 SO, 31). — Investigation of reported cases of poisoning from eating chestnuts 

 collected from trees affected by the chestnut blight gave no evidence that the 

 nuts collected from such trees have any more deleterious properties than chest- 

 nuts collected from healthy trees. The symptoms attributed to eating blighted 

 chestnuts were in almost all cases such as might be produced in some persojxs 

 by chestnuts from healthy trees. Chemical examinations, as the author states, 

 and laboratory exi'teriments in feeding the whole fruit and in the use of extracts 

 failed to show any toxic properties in the nuts. 



Bromin compounds in table salts, L. Chexle {Bui. Hoc. Phann. Bordeaux, 

 54 {1914), No. 1, pp. 19-24; ol)S. in ZentU. Biochem. u. Biophys., 16 {1914), 

 No. 15-16, p. 592). — A number of salts of different origin were examined aud 

 all contained bromin. From his investigations, the author concludes that the 

 quantity of bromin absorbed with the food is probably sufficient to account for 

 the amount normally contained in the urine. 



[rood analyses and other pure food and drug topics], E. F. Ladd aud 

 Alma K. Johnson {Nortli Dakota Sta. Spec. BuL, 3 {1914), Nos. 3, pp. 17-40; 

 4, pp. 41-56; 6, pp. 73-88; 7, pp. 89-104). — The first of these bulletins discusses 

 general questions connected with the state pure food supply; gives some data 

 regarding a test with a commercial " hog cholera specific," which indicate that 

 "it is not a cure or preventive for hog cholera " ; records the data obtained in 

 inspections of groceiy stores and meat markets; aud gives a li.'jt of beverage 

 registrations for 1914. 



