466 EXPERIMENT STATION RECOED. 



r.iiuil.v. The French workman like the English, eats pure wheaten bread; the 

 breads made of rye, or of i-ye mixed in various proportions with wheat, so 

 popular in Germany, are little known in Prance. Vegetables play a much 

 more important part in the dietary of the Fx-ench than of the English working- 

 classes; when allowance is made for the smaller size of families, the consump- 

 tion of milk is only slightly higher, whilst that of sugar is, on the other hand, 

 decidedly less." 



Improved meals of school children in Charlottenburg', Seydel {Arch. Volks- 

 irohlfdlut. 2 {l!)U!)), No. -'/, pi). 227-231). — The system of supplying meals to 

 needy children in Charlottenburg schools is described. If they are able to do 

 so, the children pay part of the cost of food; otherwise, it is supplied without 

 cost. The children assist in the serving of the meals with the idea of giving 

 the project an educational value. 



Studies of protein metabolism, B. Abderhalden (ZtscJir. Phi/.sioL Chetn., 59 

 {1909), A'o. 2, pp. 111-193). — The experimental data reported are discussed with 

 reference to the theory that when food nitrogen is broken down in the digestive 

 tract to its constituent radicals, the cleavage products not required are still 

 further broken down and the nitrogen excreted, while the cleavage products 

 required are assimilated. It is regarded as naturally following that urea can not 

 be regarded as standing in direct relation to the food nitrogen assimilated. 



The subject is also discussed with reference to fasting. 



The influence of lactic ferments in the absorption of protein, H. Labbe and 

 G. YiTRY {Compt. Rend. Soc. Biol. [Paris], 66 {1909). Xo. 11, pp. 165-167).— On 

 constant diet urinary nitrogen was iierceptibly diminished during the period 

 in which lactic-acid bacteria were taken, while ethereal sulphur in the urine 

 was increased. The coefticieut of al)Sorption, that is, the ratio of urinary 

 nitrogen to food nitrogen, was diminished and the so-called Amann coefficient, 

 that is, the ratio of ethereal sulphur to urinary nitrogen, was increased. 



The uric acid ferments, E. W. Rock wood {Proc. Iowa Acad. Set., 15 {1908), 

 pp. 99-103). — ^A progress report of experiments undertaken to study the nature 

 of the ferments which it is believed are concerned in the formation of uric acid 

 from nucleins in the liver. 



Rice and beri-beri, W. Fletcher {Jour. Trop. Med. and Hyg. [London], 12 

 {1909), No. 9. pp. 121-13Jf, pi. 1). — From an extended study, carried on in a 

 general hospital for the insane in the Federated Malay States, of the dietetic 

 origin of beri-beri, of which the earlier results have been noted (E. S. R., 19, 

 p. 1164), the author concludes that there is intimate connection between this 

 disease and the eating of certain kinds of rice in quantity. 



As is pointed out, the rice used in the Malay States is of three sorts : Home 

 pounded rice, white rice, and Indian rice. The home pounded rice is the sort 

 eaten by Malays in country districts. "The unhusked grain is stored in large 

 bins, and as it is required for food it is taken and pounded and winnowed by 

 the women of the household to remove the husk." 



White rice " is the rice which forms the staple article of food for the Chinese 

 miner, for the town Malay, and for all Asiatic inhabitants of the Peninsula 

 except the Malays of rice-growing districts and immigrants from India. Under 

 the heading of white rice are included the rices sold in the shops as Siamese 

 and Rangoon. . . . The grain or paddy from which this white rice is made is 

 taken to the mills, and there it is husked between revolving millstones. Sub- 

 sequently it is polished by friction between a revolving stone and flne wire gauze, 

 or by other methods which remove the whole of the outer layers of the grain 

 and leave it white, clean, and pleasing to the eye." This class of rice is some- 

 times termed " uncured." 



