1919] FOODS HUMAN NUTRITION. 4G3 



How shall we plan our diets? E. V. McCollum (Gen. Fed. [Womm'i Clubs] 

 Mag., 11 (1918). No. 11, pp. 7-10). — The author points out that a diet consisting 

 of seeds and seed products together with tubers and edible roots will not satis- 

 factorily nourish a young animal during the growing period, as it is deficient 

 in certain proteins, calcium, sodium, chlorin, and fat-soluble A. To secure 

 diets of good quality he advocates the use of either milk or the leaves of plants 

 in liberal amounts. He designates these foods as " protective foods," because 

 they are so constituted as to correct the deficiencies of whatever else is likely 

 to be eaten. 



Nutritional physiology, P. G. Stiles (Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co., 

 101 S, S. ed., pp. 294, pis. 4, figs. 11)).— This is the third edition of the work pre- 

 viously noted (E. S. R., 35, p. 268). The principal changes are found in the 

 chapters dealing with metabolism. The author believes that the main facts of 

 metabolism admit of simpler and better correlated statement today than they 

 diil even five years ago. 



Continuation and extension of work on vegetable proteins, T. B. OSBOBITC 

 and L. B. Mendel (Carnegie Inst. Washington Year Book, 16 (1917), pp. 324- 

 829). — This is a progress report of the investigation by the authors of the rela- 

 tive nutritional value of different vegetable proteins (E. S. R., 36, p. 865). Ex- 

 periments with cottonseed products have been extended and the results pre- 

 viously described confirmed. The work with the soy bean and with yeast as a 

 source of food hormones has also been greatly extended. By-products of the 

 milk industry have been tested with the hope of securing a cheap substitute for 

 the protein-free milk which has been used as a source of water-soluble vitamins 

 and suitable inorganic salts in studying nutrition problems. The results of most 

 of these experiments have been noted from the original sources. 



Researches on the toxicity of egg albumin: Influence of the seasons on the 

 sensitiveness of the organism to nitrogen intoxication, F. Maignon (Compt. 

 Rend. Acad. Sci. [Paris], 166 (1918), No. 22, pp. 919-922; abs. in Chem. Abs., 12 

 (1918), No. 19, pp. 2001, 2002).— Experiments with white rats fed upon egg 

 albumin supplemented with sufficient bone ash. sodium chlorid, and ferrous 

 carbonate to prevent demoralization and with sodium bicarbonate to pre- 

 vent acidosis are reported, from which the author draws the following con- 

 clusions: 



Egg albumin is powerless to sustain life and maintain a fixed weight in white 

 rats. Hats fed with egg albumin succumb very rapidly in May and October 

 with acute intoxication of the central nervous system, while in August and 

 January they succumb slowly with marasmus. 



These results are considered by the author to suggest the seasonal character 

 of the manifestation of certain nutritional diseases associated with nitrogen 

 intoxication, such as eczema, rheumatic affections, etc. The acute form of 

 nitrogen intoxication produced coma, which would indicate that diabetic coma 

 is due not so much to acidosis as to the accumulation of peptids derived from 

 proteins. 



A comparative study of the toxicity and nutritive power of food proteins 

 employed in a pure state, F. Maignon (Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. [Paris]. 166 

 (1918), No. 24, pp. 1008-1011; abs. in Chem. Abs., 12 (1918), No. 19, p. 2002).— 

 Continuing the study noted above, similar experiments are noted in which the 

 nutritive value of fibrin, casein, and meat powder were tested. 



Each of these materials was found to be incapable of sustaining life for long 

 periods. There was no seasonal variation as in the case of egg albumin, and 

 death in every case was due to the exhaustion of reserves and not to chronic 

 intoxication. The average duration of life under this feeding was egg albumin 



