t^y6 Journal of Agricultural Research voi.xii, no. 9 



Lugol's solution. Of the 60 children, 33 always gave negative iodin 

 tests, indicating complete utilization of the starch. Among the re- 

 mainder, 8 usually gave a negative test, 12 usually gave a positive test, 

 and 7 always a positive test for starch. Of the 41 children showing a 

 good capacity for starch utilization one 19-day -old child received 9.2 

 gm. of barley flour daily for 2 days; one 21 -day-old child received 14.6 

 gm. every 24 hours; one child i month and 22 days old received 25.9 gm. 

 the first day and 25.3 gm. a day for the following four days; and another 

 child I month and 19 days old received 12 gm. daily for three days. 



Heubner,* in a paper presented before the Berlin Medical Society, 

 describes an investigation conducted at Leipzig for the purpose of 

 determining the digestibility of starch in the food of artificially fed 

 children. The children received during i-day and 2-day periods a care- 

 fully prepared starchy gruel which was fed in place of milk, at the same 

 intervals and in the same quantity as the milk feeding. Carbon was 

 used to identify the experimental stools, and the feces from each child 

 were assembled, dried, and analyzed for starch. A 7-weeks-old child 

 received 24.6 gm. of rice flour during a 25-hour period, and no starch 

 was found in the feces. Another child 14 weeks old received 53 gm. 

 of rice flour during a 39-hour period, and 0.1689 g"^- o^ starch was found 

 in the feces. A third child i year old received, in addition to 72 gm. 

 of butter, 133 gm. of rice flour during a 48-hour period, and 0.2804 g^' 

 of starch was found in the feces. A fourth child, 14 weeks old, received 

 57 gm. of a specially prepared oatmeal during a 34-hour period, and 

 0.261 1 gm. of starch was found in the feces. 



In an elaboration of the work done by Heubner at Leipzig, Carstens ' 

 gives the results of digestion experiments on eight children from 5 to 14 

 weeks old. Some of these children received starch from rice flour, some 

 from a prepared oatmeal flour, and some from two different proprietary 

 infant foods. The same methods were followed as in the Heubner 

 investigation. The quantity of undigested starch varied from a trace 

 in the feces of two children, one 9 weeks and one 15 weeks old, respec- 

 tively, to 5.08 gm., or 6.23 per cent of the amount ingested by a child 

 6)4 weeks old. 



Kriiger * who worked with fetal and newborn calves found that the 

 ptyalin is secreted in the salivary glands as early as the seventh month 

 of fetal life, but that while the quantity increases up to birth, even at 

 that time it is too small to be of any importance in the digestion of food. 



' Heubner, O. ueberdieadsnutzung des mehls im darm jungersaugunge. /ra Berlin. Klin. 

 Wchnschr., Bd. 32, No. 10, p. 201-204, 1S95. Literatur, p. 204. 



'Carstens, J. H. weitere erfahrungen iber die ausnutzung des mehls im darme junger 

 Saugunge. In Verhandl. Gesell. Kinderheilk., Bd. 12, p. 169-176. 1895. 



' Kruger, Friedrich. die verdauungsfermente bhim embryo und neugeborenen. 80 p. 

 Wiesbaden, 1891. Literatur, p. 79-80. 



