776 



EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD, 



FOODS— ANIMAL PRODUCTION. 



A report of investigations on the digestibility and nutritive 

 value of bread, C. D. Woods and L. H. Merrill {U. S. Dept. Agr., 

 Office of Exptr'irntrd Stations Bid. 85., pl^. 51). — The authors report 

 the details of a number of experiments with health}^ men on the digesti- 

 bility^ of white bread, whole-wheat bread and graham bread. In some 

 cases the bread was eaten alone, in others materials such as milk, sugar 

 and butter were eaten in addition. With a view to learning the actual 

 amount of nutrients digested, 2 methods of stud3'ing the metabolic 

 products in the feces were investigated, nameh^, (1) treatment with 

 a pepsin solution, and (2) with ether, alcohol, hot water and cold lime- 

 water. The metabolic nitrogen in the feces on a carbohydrate diet 

 and during fasting was also studied. Artificial digestion experiments 

 with 3 sorts of bread were made; the value of skim milk v. water in 

 bread making was tested, and the loss of materials in bread making 

 was investigated. The average coefficients of digestibility of the dif- 

 ferent sorts of bread and the digestibility of protein as shown in the arti- 

 ficial digestion experiments and when corrections are made by the 2 

 methods of estimating the metabolic products are shown in the table 

 Avhich follows: 



Average digestibiliti/ of hrecul of different kinds. 



When skim milk and water were compared for bread making, it was 

 found that the skim-milk bread contained somewhat more protein than 

 the water bread. As shown by methods of artificial digestion there 

 was little difi'erence in the 2 sorts of bread. The results obtained 

 in studying the losses of material in bread making are not discussed at 

 length. 



Experiments on the preservation of meat and fish -with salts, 

 E. Pettersson {Arch. Ilyg., 37 {1900), No. 2-3, j^P- 171-238).— Bac- 

 teriological studies are reported of meat and fish preserved with dift'er- 

 ent strength solutions of salt, saltpeter, boric acid, and borax. The 

 experiments are discussed in detail. Among the conclusions are the 

 following: The principal efl'ects of common salt as a general preserv- 

 ative are the retarding of the growth of micro-organisms, hinder- 

 ing even when present in a weak solution the deep-seated decomposi- 



