862 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



" Growing animals subsisting on cereals alone soon come to suffer from 

 malnutrition of the bones." 



" Legumincms seeds . . . have very high feeding values ; the range of their 

 usefulness is wide, and is being rapidly extended. On the mineral side they 

 are qualified to some extent to supplement the cereals, because of an excess of 

 basic over acid mineral elements, and greater contents of calcixun, but they 

 possess both (if these qualities in smaller measure than the roughages of the 

 same species. . . . 



"[Milk] is characterized by an excess of basic over acid mineral elements, 

 and contains ccmsiderably more calcium than phosphorus, and generous amounts 

 of both of these, on the dry matter basis. Its phosphorus is a little more 

 largely in inorKanic than in organic compounds. 



" Whey contains a greater proportion of basic to acid mineral elements than 

 does milk, since the curd removes more acid than basic mineral elements from 

 milk. The ready assimilabilty of its organic constituents, and the corrective 

 tendency of its minerals in the various digestive disturbances of infancy, espe- 

 cially those in which acidosis is a feature, make whey the rational basis for 

 the modification of milk for infants. . . . The use of whey rather than water 

 in the modification of milk [is recommended]. Whey is also especially useful 

 in severe illness of older children. . . . 



" Meat, like the cereals, is extremely low in calcium, and like them, will 

 cause malnutrition of the bones if used to the exclusion of other foods. Car- 

 nivorous animals naturally make good this deficiency by eating bones. . . . 



" Eggs are also low in calcium, a deficiency which the incubating chick 

 makes good by withdrawing calcium carbonate from the shell. Eggs are rich 

 in phosphorus, however, in organic compounds, mostly lecithin, which has a 

 high nutritive value, and which is a universal cell constituent. 



" Considering the animal products as a group, they usually contain an 

 abundance of phosphorus, but only milk and bone preparations contain enough 

 calcium to make them of value on this account in supplementing the cereals. . . . 



" EYuits and vegetables . . . have in common a very decided preponderance 

 of basic over acid mineral nutrients, due largely to high potassium and low 

 phosphorus contents, the bases being present as salts of organic acids which 

 are oxidized in the body, the acid radicle being excreted as carbon dioxid and 

 water, and the inorganic bases becoming free for the neutralization of mineral 

 acids which can not thus be oxidized to harmless products. This fits them 

 admirably to serve as supplements to the cereals and leguminous seeds. They 

 are, on the dry basis, moderately rich in calcium." 



From the work as a whole, the following conclusions are drawn: 



"AH things considered, then, the ration which is most likely to contain in 

 abundance all of the mineral nutrients required by animals, is one character- 

 ized by diversity of origin, no one class of foods greatly exceeding others. . . . 



" Grouping together the foods with acid ash — cereals, meats, and eggs, and 

 opposing to them those of alkaline ash — fruits, vegetables, milk, and legumes, 

 the latter group should be liberally represented in the dietary. 



"Among single foods, milk and the legumes are perhaps more nearly complete 

 foods on the mineral side than others, though there are many reasons why 

 extreme simplicity of diet is not advantageous. 



" Those circumstances most likely to lead to error in this matter of the 

 mineral elements in nutrition are poverty, parsimony, fads, and indifference." 



Interim report on the supply and distribution of meat. Royal commis- 

 sion [of New South Wales] of inquiry as to food supplies and prices, T. R. 

 Bavin et al. (Sydney, N. S. W.: Govt., 191S, pp. LXVIII +297) .—Data regard- 



