POODS HUMAN NUTRITIGlSr. 3G5 



Notes regarding the diet of the laborer and the mechanic. R. Otlet {Prog. 

 A-gr. y Pccuario, 19 {1913), No. 809, pp. 119, 120).— The relative cost and nutri 

 tive value- of different articles of food in Spain, with suggestions for the sub- 

 stitution of the more economical for the more costly food materials in the 

 diet, are given. 



The utilization of ammonia in the protein metabolism, A. E. Taylor and 

 A. I. RiMJER {Jour. Biol. Cheni., 1-', {1913), No. .',, pp. J,07-J,18, fig. i).— When 

 ammonium carbonate was given per os to dogs a considerable part of the 

 nitrogen was retained and failed to be eliminated in the after-period. Wben 

 given subcutaneously it was promptly eliminated. 



The administration of urea was followed by complete elimination of all the 

 nitrogen. Wben ammonia was given to man on a protein-free diet (0.065 gm. 

 per day) about two-thirds was retained. 



Studies in the purin metabolism. — I, On uricolysis in the human subject, 

 A. E. Taylor and W. C. Rose {Jour. Biol. Chem., 1^ {1913), No. //, pp. J,I9- 

 422). — From the figures presented, it is clear, according to the authors, "that 

 although the replacement of milk-egg nitrogen by sweetbread nitrogen results 

 in a rise in the purin nitrogen of the urine, an expression of the elimination of 

 purins derived from the catabolism of the nucleic acids of the sweetbreads, this 

 increment in elimination is less than half of the known input of purin in the 

 state of nucleic acids in the sweetbreads. ... It is clear from these figures 

 that the larger portion of the ingested purin was either destroyed in the ali- 

 mentary tract prior to resorption, or was converted in tlie metabolism into 

 nonpurin (presumably into urea), since less than half of the ingested amount 

 was recovered in the urine. It is also clear from the figures that the ingestion 

 of a moderate amount of purin bases does not lead to increase in the purin 

 bases in the urine, but solely to increase in uric acid." 



Further experiments on the indispensability of lipoids for life — the 

 destruction by heat of lipoids in the food which are essential for life, 

 W. Stkpp {Ztschr. Biol., 59 {1912), No. 8, pp. 366-395).— The property pos- 

 sessed by the alcohol-ether extracts of certain substances, as egg yolk, calf 

 brain, etc., of rendering an inadequate diet sufficient to sustain animals, is 

 destroyed by boiling with alcohol for 2 days, or heating with water for the 

 same time. 



The lipoids present in natural foods are destroyed by boiling. A diet suffi- 

 cient to maintain a mouse was changed by boiling for 2 days with alcohol to 

 such an extent that all the animals fed on it died. This effect of heating was 

 overcome by the addition of lipoids obtained in the absence of higher tempera- 

 tures, showing that the change produced by heating the diet involved a destruc- 

 tion of certain lipoids essential to life. The heating process evidently must be 

 carried out for a certain minimum time, for heating with water for G hours 

 had no effect on the foods. This experiment would indicate that the animal 

 organism in this case was unable to synthesize the essential lipoids from their 

 fundamental structural parts or " building stones." 



Relationship of gastric to pancreatic fat digestion in infants, J. P. Sedgwick 

 and F. W. Schultz {Amer. Jour. Diseases Children, 2 {1911), No. 2, pp. 243- 

 247). — A lipase was found in the gastric secretion of infants. The function 

 of this lipase continued after the gastric contents had left the stomach and 

 were neutralized in the duodenum. 



Relation of meat ingestion to indicanuria in children, E. C. Fleixhner 

 {Amer. Jour. Diseases Children, 2 {1911), No. 2, pp. 262-266).— Children 'aged 

 6, 9, and 12 years, when given an ordinary diet containing meat once daily, 

 digested their food fairly wdJ and without much intestinal putrefaction, but 



