Nutrition Investigations. 



287 



SUBSTANCE ADDED TO DIET. 



i EQUIVALENT OF 



SUBSTANCE IN 



DEXTROSE. 



CARBOHYDRATES 

 IN FAECES CAL- 

 CULATED AS 

 DEXTROSE. 



HEMICELLULOSE 

 DIGESTED. 



20 grams agar. . . 

 24 grams agar . . . 

 40 grams wakame 

 45 grams kombu. 



Grams. 



10 

 12 

 4.7 

 11.4 



Grams. 

 9.2 

 8.8 

 3.4 

 2.5 



Per cent. 



8 

 27 

 28 

 78 



Lohrisch has also studied the digestibility of "soluble agar" in 

 man. Sometimes it is not well borne, especially if given in quanti- 

 ties over 50-60 grams per day and causes gas formation, diarrhoea, 

 and other intestinal disturbances; in other cases, large amounts (100 

 grams per day) cause no unpleasant symptoms whatever. The agar 

 was dissolved in some beverage, and the diet was otherwise carbohy- 

 drate-free. Some of the results are shown in the following table (194) : 



No. 4 was a case of chronic constipation; the high percentage of hemi- 

 cellulose digested is in accordance with the observations of Lohrisch 

 (193) and Pletnew (203), on the extraordinarily good utilization of all 

 foodstuffs in chronic constipation. Two of these experiments were on 

 diabetics, and showed that the 18.36 grams of "soluble agar" ab- 

 sorbed per day caused no increase of sugar in the urine, and had no 

 noticeable effect on nitrogen metabolism. 



From these experiments, we see that ordinary agar is digestible to a 

 very small extent, and that even when changed to an easily hydro- 

 lyzed form, it is only digested to about 50 per cent. Is the part 

 digested absorbed and utilized as galactose? The recent exhaustive 



