36G EXPEEIMENT STATION RECORD. 



3-year old children were apt to show indieanuria on such diets. Meat given 

 twice daily produced no change in the amount of intestinal putrefaction in the 

 case of 9 and 12-year old children, but gave rise to increased indieanuria and 

 pronounced intestinal putrefaction with children from 3 to 6 years old. 



The conclusion is drawn from these experiments that the giving of meat to 

 children under 9 years of age oftener than once daily is conducive to intestinal 

 putrefaction, and indieanuria is to be deprecated on account of the harm 

 resulting from the abnormal products of intestinal putrefaction. 



The role of mineral salts in the metabolism of infants, B. R. Hooblee 

 (Amer. Jour. Diseases Children, 2 (.1911), No. 2, pp. 107 -I'tl).— This article 

 discusses the mineral salt content of mother's and cow's milk and their inges- 

 tion, absorption, and elimination by infants. 



There are differences in the salts of mother's and cow's milk which should 

 be considered in artificial feeding. The various salts, except iron, are present 

 in the proper proportions and sufBcient quantities in mother's milk, but most 

 dilutions of cow's milk contain an excess of mineral salts which, although 

 negligible in the feeding of normal infants, play an important part in the 

 feeding of children already suffering from nutritional disturbances. 



Salts are best absorbed and utilized when in organic combination with food- 

 stuffs. In certain pathological conditions some salts are not absorbed by the 

 organism, even though they may be present in abundance in the food, while 

 in other conditions they are actually withdrawn from the body tc such an 

 extent as to produce serious nutritional disturbances. 



Nutrient salts — the determination of the ash constituents of foodstuffs, 

 R. Berg (Chetn. Ztg., 36 (1912), Nos. 55, pp. 509-511; 56, pp. 523, 52J,; abs. in 

 Hyg. Rundschau, 23 (1913), No. 8, pp. ^72, .^73).— The author discusses the 

 importance of mineral matter in food and reports methods for the determination 

 of the individual ash constituents of food materials of different character. 



The mode of behavior of the purin bases of muscles during fatigue, V. 

 ScAFFiDi (Arch. Ital. Biol.. 58 (1912), No. 3. pp. 337 -3', I). —The results of sev- 

 eral experiments showed that the total amount of the purin bases present in a 

 frog's leg muscle which had been stimulated to the point of fatigue was from 

 9 to 17 per cent less than the amount present in the muscle of the other leg 

 of the same animal which had been kept at rest and analyzed as a control. 



This decrease was due to a diminution of the fixed bases as the amount of 

 free purin bases in the fatigued muscle remained the same as in the muscle at 

 rest. No uric acid was found in the fatigued muscles, from which the author 

 concludes that either uric acid is not formetl or is broken down as soon as formed 

 by a very active uricolytic ferment present in the muscles. 



The content of purin bases in the different kinds of muscular tissues, V. 

 SCAFFIDI (Arch. Ital. Biol., 58 (1912), No. 3, pp. 3.'/2-S-'/6).— Smooth muscle was 

 found to contain about half as much of purin bases as striated and heart muscle 

 from the same animal, while the heart muscle contained slightly larger amounts 

 than the striated muscle. 



ANIMAL PRODUCTION. 



By-product feeds, H. J. Patterson and H. J. White (Maryland Sta. Bui. 

 168, pp. 27). — This bulletin is a supplement to work previously noted (E. S. R., 

 19. p. 363), and reports analyses and coefficients of digestibility of various weed 

 seeds, screenings, and by-product feeds, with data as to the vitality of seeds in 

 grain screenings. The average coefficients of digestibility of by-product feeds 

 obtained in experiments with 2 steers are summarized La the following table : 



