228 REPORTS ON INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



grant to supplementing the resources derived from the Adams Fund. Con- 

 sequently much time has been devoted to the preparation of suitable ma- 

 terials with which to conduct these feeding experiments, for it has been 

 essential to their success that only protein preparations of the highest purity 

 should be used. The labor thus required has made it necessary to postpone, 

 for the present, some of the work which in our last report was described as 

 nearing completion. 



The work on the proteins of hemp seed has advanced but little during the 

 present year, and an extensive investigation of the proteins of maize, which 

 was planned as a part of the year's work, has not gone beyond a substantial 

 beginning. 



The study of the anaphylaxis reaction, undertaken in cooperation with 

 Prof. H. Gideon Wells, of the University of Chicago, has been carried to a 

 point where the results have been published in the Journal of Infectious 

 Diseases, vol. viii, p. 66, 1911, as part i of a proposed series of papers on 

 the biological reactions of the vegetable proteins. 



The investigations of the methods used in determining the proportion of 

 the products of decomposition effected by boiling proteins with acids has 

 been continued and most of the results obtained during the past year have 

 been published in the American Journal of Physiology, vol. xxxvi, p. 420, 

 1910, and Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. ix, p. 333, and p. 425, 1911. 

 The products of hydrolysis of gliadin from wheat flour have been analyzed 

 with results materially higher than those obtained in the earlier analyses. 

 Additional information respecting deficiencies in the analytical methods has 

 been secured, and we now have information of greater value than that which 

 we formerly had respecting this important protein. A similar study of the 

 products of hydrolysis of casein from cow's milk has also yielded a much 

 better knowledge of the products of decomposition of this important protein. 

 An analysis of edestin has also been completed with results of similar value. 

 These analyses were undertaken not only to increase our knowledge of the 

 deficiencies of the analytical methods, but also to supply us with more 

 accurate information respecting these three proteins which in their chemical 

 constitution represent distinctly different types and which have formed the 

 basis of comparison in most of our feeding experiments. 



The experimental feeding of white rats, which was instituted for the pur- 

 pose of determining the relative nutritive value of different proteins, has 

 given results of such interest and importance that our chief efforts have 

 been directed to their successful conduct. During the first year it was 

 learned that rats could be maintained for much longer periods than had 

 before been supposed possible if fed on combinations of isolated foodstuffs 

 containing a properly chosen mixture of inorganic substances. During the 

 progress of this work fire destroyed our laboratory, together with all the 

 experimental animals, and consequently none of the experiments had then 

 been carried on long enough to determine the fact that after about six 



