METEOROLOGY.— NUTRITION. 299 



The proposition of the author referred to in the previous report, 

 concerning the introduction of the c.g.s. units of pressure, bar, 

 decibar, centibar, milhbar, instead of the milHmeters or the inches of 

 mercury, was accepted by the International Meteorological Committee 

 at its meeting at Rome, 1913, in the form that it is recommended to 

 use the old and the new units side by side in aerological publications. 



On January 1, 1913, the author was appointed professor of 

 geophysics at the University of Leipzig and director of the new 

 Geophysical Institute of this University. This Institute aims to 

 bring into practical use for investigations in dynamical meteorology 

 the methods worked out in the ''Dynamic Meteorology and Hydro- 

 graphy." For this purpose the Institute has started the issue of a 

 pubhcation, '' Veroffenthchungen des Geophysikalischen Instituts der 

 Universitat Leipzig," in which the results of the international meteor- 

 ological ascents are worked out synoptically according to the men- 

 tioned methods. 



The preparatory work for the third volume, "Dynamics," of the 

 ' ' Dynamic Meteorology and Hydrography ' ' has been continued. The 

 assistants, Mr. Hesselberg and Mr. Sverdrup, have been occupied 

 principally with an extensive investigation concerning the influence 

 of friction upon atmospheric motion. 



NUTRITION. 



Osborne, T. B., and L. B. Mendel, New Haven, Connecticut. Grant 

 No. 831, allotted December 13, 1912. Continuation and extension of 

 work on vegetable proteins. (For previous reports see Year Books 

 Nos. 3-11.) $15,000 



The report of work done under this grant covers the period from 

 April 1, 1912, to March 31, 1913. During this time the experiments 

 in progress at the end of the previous year were continued and the 

 results of the investigations, so far as completed, have been published 

 in various journals (cf. Bibliography, pp. 52, 53). 



The experiments with zein, the principal protein constituent of 

 maize, have been extended to an elaborate stud}^ of the nutritive 

 value of the proteins of this seed for both growth and maintenance. 

 These experiments are now practically completed, and the results, 

 which will soon be published, can be summarized as follows: 



The long-recognized nutritive inefficiency of maize, as the sole food 

 of domestic animals, has been found to be caused largely, if not 

 wholl}^, by deficiencies in ^he constitution of its proteins. We have 

 previously shown that when zein, which yields no tryptophane or 

 lysine, is the only protein in the diet of either a young or a mature 

 animal, a decline in body-weight at once begins and death ultimately 

 results; and that if a quantity of tryptophane, equivalent to 3 per 



