170 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



deficiencies are to be set a much larger consumption of bread and flour, of 

 potatoes, and of butter, oils and of fats, and a slightly higher consumption of 

 meat. It is important to remember, however, that this is, as stated, a compari- 

 son of families enjoying the same income. A comparison of the budgets for two 

 working-class families each enjoying the average income characteristic of its 

 own country would be much less favorable to Belgium owing to the low rates 

 of wages ruling." See also previous articles of the series (E. S. R., 21, p. 464). 



The art of baking-, P. E. Laskowski {Los Angeles, 1910, pp. 233, pi. 1). — A 

 large number of recipes are given, most of them especially designed to meet 

 the needs of the professional baker. The author states that the recipes have 

 been tested and that the suggestions made are the result of personal ex- 

 perience. Numerous statements regarding the cost of the various recipes and 

 the selling prices of the products are a feature of the volume. 



Bacterial food poisoning, Jacobitz and H. Kayseb (Centbl. Bakt. [etc.], 1. 

 Ahl.. Orig., 53 {1010), No. .',, pp. 377-3S7 ) .— The importance of bacteriological 

 studies in cases of food poisoning and related matters are discussed and in- 

 formation summarized regarding poisoning from ham attributable to Bacillus 

 enteriUdis. 



The data presented show that food poisoning from potato salad and flour 

 soup made from rye flour, wheat flour, and a commercial fat (palmitin) was 

 due to bacteria of the Coli type. 



Outbreak of food poisoning after a Christmas dinner, C. E. P. Fowler 

 {Jour. Roij. Army Med. Corps, 13 {1909), No. 3, pp. 27 1-27 J/) .—An outbreak 

 of illness observed in about one-third of the total number of those who had 

 partaken of a Christmas dinner was attributed to goose eaten, although actual 

 proof was not possible. 



The illness was in some cases quite severe and in one case fatal, Bacilhis para- 

 typliosiis being isolated in the case of the patient who died. The author 

 jioints out that it would be ditlicult to say in what manner the geese were 

 affected. "It is probable that two or three out of the six had suffered from 

 some disease before slaughter, and being undrawn the bacilli had multiplied, 

 invaded the flesh, and formed their toxin, which would account for the acute 

 onset in several of the cases. The carcasses being undrawn, it is difficult to 

 imagine that they could have become infected with the organism after slaughter, 

 although a contamination of food after preparation is perhaps the most common 

 cause of such outbreaks." 



Constituents of buckwheat and buckwheat disease, .J. Fischer ( Untcr- 

 SKcliiingen iibrr einigc BcsltindtcUc dcs BueJiweizens in Riicksicht (luf die 

 Atiologie der Bnchwcizenkraukheit. Inaug. Diss., Univ. Bern, 1909; rev. in 

 Bioehem. Zcntbl., 9 {1910), No. 17 p. 787). — Extracts of buckwheat were pre- 

 pared with glycerin and hydrogen peroxid and tested in regard to their diastasic 

 and proteolytic activity, with special reference to the etiology of buckwheat 

 disease. 



Both enzyms were found to be present and were shown not to be of bacterial 

 origin. The hulls of the buckwheat were also found to contain a fluorescent 

 body which can be extracted with alcohol, ether, and chloroform, and which 

 causes by virtue of its chemical-mechanical irritating property an inflamma- 

 tion of the intestinal mucosa, hypertrophy of the liver and kidneys, and necro- 

 biotic changes in the leucocytes. In white-coated animals this body greatly 

 influences the destructive action of light on the periphei'al leucocytes and 

 produces the well-known skin disease. Animals with pigmented skins are not 

 so readily affected, but continued feeding with buckwheat will also produce a 

 mortality among them. 



