164' EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



active substance participates in some way in carbohydrate metabolism, and 

 thus the more metabolic work the organism is called upon to undertake the 

 greater its demand in respect of this essential substance. Secondly, that when 

 large rations of starch are ingested the absorption of the antineuritic material 

 is interfered with owing to the presence in the alimentary canal of excess of 

 undigested carbohydrate." 



Experiments show that even when daily rations of polished rice amounting 

 to as much as one-tenth of the body weight were fed to chickens together with 

 varying amounts of yeast, from 93 to OS per cent of the starch was digested and 

 absorbed and that the excreta was free from the antineuritic substance. It 

 was also noted that in vitro starch did not absorb the substance from the 

 aqueous solution. Pigeons fed exclusively on glucose, which is rapidly ab- 

 sorbed, develojied polyneuritis. 



" These observations exclude the physical factor, and show that the anti- 

 neuritic substance is utilized in some way during carbohydrate metabolism. 

 Whatever be the mechanism involved, it is clear that for the maintenance of 

 health the intake of active substance must be adjusted in relation to the ration 

 of carbohydrate supplied, and it is when this necessary balance is not main- 

 tained in the dietary that beri-beri results. 



" The precise relation which must subsist between the supply of antineuritic 

 substance and the amount of carbohydrate ingested has not yet been ascertained, 

 nor has the corresponding relation for each of the other normal components of 

 a dietary (i)rotein and fat) been determined. Funk . . . however, has made 

 some experiments which indicate that protein and carbohydrate can be inter- 

 changed in a dietary without materially affecting the rate of onset of poly- 

 neuritis, whereas if these food materials be replaced by fat the disease develops 

 less readily. 



" The fact that attention must be paid not merely to the absolute amount of 

 antineuritic foodstuff incorporatecl in the dietary but also to the proportion 

 which this bears to its total calorific value is of great practical importance in 

 framing a dietary for the prevention of beri-beri." 



Quantity of a diet in relation to quantity of vitamin {Brit. Med. Jour., 

 No. 2700 (1914), pp. 1373, 1374).— A discussion of the data reported above. 

 The observations, it is stated, demonstrate " that the antineuritic substance is 

 expended in some way in carbohydrate metabolism, so that the larger the 

 amount of carbohydrate consumed the greater the demand of the organism in 

 respect to the essential substance. . . . 



" [In framing a dietary to obviate beri-beri] it is advisable to maintain the 

 amount of antineuritic foodstuff as high as possible and to avoid large rations 

 of food materials deficient in vitamin." 



Nutritive properties of proteins of the maize kernel, T. B. Osborne and 

 L. B. Mendel (Jour. Biol. Cheni., 18 (1914), ^^o. 1, pp. i-iG).— The authors 

 report experiments in continuation of those previously reported (E. S. R.. 28, 

 p. 759). 



It is pointed out that when the entire maize kernel is fed the amino-acid de- 

 ficiencies of zein are supplemented to a gi'eat extent by other proteins which 

 contain the amino acids that zein lacks. An inadequate but cheap protein can, 

 therefore, be supplemented by another protein which supplies the lacking amino 

 acids. The relative economy of the added proteins depends largely on their 

 amino-acid makeup. 



The study of the effect of benzoic acid and its sodium salt on the animal 

 organism, E. Rost, F. Franz, and A. Weitzel (Ar6. K. Gsndhtsamt., ^5 (1913), 

 No. Jf, pp. 425-490). — The technique is described and results reported of a 

 series of experiments with dogs which show in general the following results : 



