70 EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD, 



" Determinations of calcium and pbospborus in the principal organs and tis- 

 sues of the animals on the low pliospliorus ration showed that they maintained 

 the proportion of these elements constant and comparable to that of normally 

 fed pigs. 



" The percentage of ash in the skeleton of pigs on the depleted phosphorus 

 ration was reduced to nearly one-half that of pigs receiving a normal ration, or 

 a phosphorus-poor ration supplemented by an inorganic phosphate. 



" The marked reduction in the quantity of ash of the bones of the animal re- 

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

 of the animal to build up a skeleton very rich in cialcium phosphate when an 

 abundance of the latter is supplied in inorganic forms, strongly points to the 

 possession of a synthetic power by the animal which enables it to convert inor- 

 ganic forms of phosphorus into the organic forms demanded by its body. 



"When the animals were starving for phosphorus, they drew this element 

 from the skeleton, but removed calcium and phosphorus in the proportions 

 found in tricalcium phosphate. 



" The daily phosphorus supply for a 50-pound growing pig should be at least 

 3 gm. A supply of 4 to 5 gm. is probably a safer quantity. 



" The data furnish no positive evidence of the syntliesis of nucleo-proteids or 

 other organic phosphorus-bearing complexes from inorganic phosphates in the 

 animal body." 



Experiments with powdered bone and ground chalk as feeds for swine, 

 A. Carlier (Ann. GcmlAou.r, 19 {1909), No. 3, pp. 166, 167).— Three lots of 4 

 swine each were fed on the same basal ration for 114 days, except that ground 

 chalk was added to the ration of one lot and precipitated bicalcium phosphate to 

 another. The lots which received the chalk and phosphate gained, respectively, 

 124.5 and 157 kg., while those that received no supplementary mineral feed 

 gained 170 kg. 



The transformations in the phosphorus compounds in the hen's egg dur- 

 ing development, R. II. A. Plimmkr and F. H. Scott (Jour. PlnjsioL, 38 

 {1909), No. 4, PP- 2Jil-253). — According to the authors the phosphorus in an 

 unincubated egg is divided as follows: Water soluble organic phosphorus com- 

 pounds 6.2 per cent, ether soluble bodies 64.8 per cent, vitellin 27.1 per cent, 

 nuclein-like bodies 1.9 per cent, and a trace of inorganic phosphate. Tables are 

 submitted which show the percentage of the different kinds of phosphorus in 

 eggs at diffei'ent periods of incubation. Until the fifteenth day there is little 

 change in the distribution of phosphorus. At the end of the incubation period 

 the distribution of phosphorus in the bodies of 3 chickens was as follows : Inor- 

 ganic phosphorus 60 per cent, water soluble organic phosphorus compounds 8.6 

 per cent, ether soluble bodies 19.3 per cent, and nuclein-like bodies 12 per cent. 

 The vitellin had disappeared, being probably changed at first into a water sol- 

 uble compound, then into nucleic acid. There was a gradual absorption of the 

 protein phosphorus bodies of the yolk by the developing chick before there was 

 much change in the lecithin bodies. 



" The whole work points to the conclusion that the glycerophosphoric acid 

 gives rise only to inorganic phosphate in the developing chicken and is not 

 transformed into any combination with protein. There is no evidence of a 

 synthetic process occurring in the developing egg as regai'ds the phosphorus 

 compounds unless the probable transformation of the phosphoprotein into nucleo- 

 protein be so considered." 



The nature of the stimulus which causes a shell to be form.ed on a bird's 

 egg, R. Pearl and F. M. Surface {Science, n. ser., 29 {1909), No. I'/l, pp. .'i2S, 

 ^29). — This is an abstract of a paper read before the American Society of 



