66 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol.43 



creatinin is mainly of endofrenous orisin and is consequently not lowered 

 greatly by reducing the protein intake. 



The percentage of ammonia nitrogen was increased in all cases and the 

 absolute amount in many cases. This confirms the previous observation. 

 " It is considered that the excess is due to an increase of acid substances in 

 the blood, owing to a disturbance in metabolism, and that the clinmte of 

 Singapore may be responsible, since so many different subjects, living under 

 such different circumstances and partaking of different diets, are similarly 

 affected." 



In regard to the nonnitrogenous excretion the ratio of phosphoric acid to 

 total nitrogen was somewhat lower than the standard, indicating that the 

 Singapore diets contained smaller quantities of absorbable phosphate. The 

 amounts of sulphates followed closely the variations of the total nitrogen, 

 the chlorids were somewhat lower, and the acidity considerably lower than 

 the European standard. 



In general the results of the investigation are considered to indicate that 

 race apart from diet has no influence on the nitrogen partition and the 

 nonnitrogenous excretions in the urine.. 



War edema in Turkish prisoners of war, .T. I. Enright (Lancet [London], 

 1 {11)20), No. 6, pp. 314-316). — The author reports a further study of the edema 

 in Turkish prisoners of war previously noted by Bigland (E, S. R., 42, p. 760). 



A short summary is given of the principal features of the disease as observed 

 in about 54 out of 300 or more cases. The diseases most commonly associated 

 with the edema, either concurrently or as antecedents, were pellagra, dysen- 

 tery, and malaria, pellagra being of most common occurrence. In discussing 

 the possible causative factors, the fact that dietetic agency was involved was 

 shown by the inadequacy of the food supply and the similarity of many of the 

 cases to wet beriberi, scurvy, and the symptoms and physical signs noted by 

 McCarrison in his experimentally-fed pigeons (E. S. R., 42, p. 463). In the 

 latter comparison one striking difference was noted, in that while the supra- 

 renal glands of the pigeons were always enlarged, the suprarenals of the vic- 

 tims of the edema were in all cases atrophied. That something more than 

 food deficiency was involved was shown by the failure of the patients to re- 

 *spond to improved food conditions. 



The theory is advanced that the edema was " due to a combination of two 

 factors — food deficiency and debilitating diseases— e. g., malaria, dysentery, 

 pulmonary tuberculosis, etc. — operating to produce a third factor — adrenal in- 

 sufficiency — which is the immediate cause of the condition. Whether the food 

 deficiency chronologically precedes the onset of the debilitating disease or vice 

 versa can be only conjectural. I personally think that the debilitating dis- 

 ease or diseases occur first, and thus render the system more receptive of the 

 deleterious influences that accrue from the subsequent food deficiency." 



Nutrition laboratory, F. G. Benedict (Carnegie Inst. Washington Tear 

 Boole, 11 (1918), pp. 2W-232).—This is the usual annual report of the work of 

 the nutrition laboratory of the Carnegie Institution (E. S. R., 40, p. 46.5). The 

 publications of the year, which are abstracted in this report, have been pre- 

 viously noted from other sources. 



ANIMAL PRODUCTION. 



Posthumous works of Charles Otis Whitman, edited by O. Riddle and 

 H. A. Carr (Carnegie Itist. Washington Pub. 257 (1919), vols. 1, pp. X-{-194, 

 pis. 88, figs. 36; 2. pp. X+224, pis. 39. figs. 11; 3, pp. XI +161). —These three 

 quarto volumes, containing many lithographic reproductions of colored and un- 



