FOODS HUMAN NUTEITION. 767 



the cost of workmen's rent, fuel, and clothing, taken together, is 10 per cent; 

 the avernge value for rents being 1.8 per cent, for retail prices of food and coal 

 13.7 per cent, and for rents and retail prices combined 11.3 per cent. 



When different towns were compared it was found " that the cost of living, 

 as represented by rents (including rates) and the retail prices of the selected 

 articles of food and coal was between 11 and 12 per cent higher in London than 

 in the other S7 towns, taken as a whole. Loudon is followed in this res[t?ct by 

 the Scottish towns, and at the other end of the scale are the towns in the 

 Midlands in which both rents and prices were at a low average. . . . 



" The general level of prices of food and coal in the different towns showed a 

 greater degree of uniformity than rents, the range of prices index numbers 

 being from 90 to lOS, whereas the range of rent index numbers was from 38 

 to 100." 



The report as a whole presents the results of an exhaustive study of the sub- 

 ject and is an important contribution to the general subject of the cost of living. 



Report on housing conditions and diet of high school pupils at Vevay, 

 [Indiana], Ada E. Schweitzer (AIu. Bui. Ind. Bd. Health, 16 {1V13), No. 6, 

 p. 211). — A survey of living conditions of i^upils who room in town during the 

 school term and board themselves, with suggestions for betterment. 



Principles of human physiology, E. H. Stabling {London, 1912, pp. XII + 

 1423, figs. 564)- — This volume is well illustrated and considers many of tbe 

 topics from a chemical standpoint. Among its contents are the following: The 

 structural, material, and energetic basis of the body; the contractile tissires; 

 nerve fibers ; the central nervous system ; the spinal cord ; the brain ; the cere- 

 bral hemispheres; the physiology of sensation; vision; the organic sensations; 

 the exchanges of matter and energy in the body ; the i)hysiology of digestion : 

 intestinal digestion ; the history of the foodstuffs ; the blood ; the physiology of 

 the circulation; lymph and tissue fluids; the defense of the organism against 

 infection; respiration; renal excretion; the skin and the skin glands; the tem- 

 perature of the body and its regulation ; the ductless glands ; and the physiology 

 of reproduction. 



Water of imbibition of the tissues, A Mayeb and G. Schaeffer {Compt. 

 Rend. Soc. Biol. [Paris], 74 (1913), No. 13, pp. 750-752).— In a given species 

 the tissues of a particular organ as well as the entire organism were found to 

 have a remarkably constant water content. The amount of water contained 

 in the different organs of the same animal varies, however, the greatest amount 

 being present in the lungs, kidneys, muscles, and liver, in the order given. 



Extended analytical data are presented. 



Feeding experiments with mice, Ruth Wheeleb (Jour. Expt. Zool., 15 

 {1913), No. 2, pp. 209-223, figs. 6). — Experiments are described which are a 

 continuation of those previously reported by Osborne, Mendel, and Ferry (E. 

 S. R., 28, p. 863). 



Mice kept on an artificial diet containing a single protein (casein) were 

 maintained in good health for 6 months, and for periods of from 1 to 5 months 

 on a similar diet in which the casein was replaced by wheat protein. It was 

 found that gelatin and zein could not replace more than half the protein, and 

 in the case of gelatin a smaller proportion than this had to be used for success- 

 ful maintenance. 



Residual nitrogen of the blood before and during intestinal absorption of 

 nitrogenous food, H. Delaunay {Compt. Rend. Soc. Biol. [Paris], 74 {1913), 

 No. IS, pp. 767-769). — Slight increases in the amounts of nitrogen titratable 

 with formol and of amino nitrogen were observed in the arterial blood of fast- 

 ing dogs after the ingestion of a hearty meal of meat. The blood of the portal 



