OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 221 



samples of feces soluble in pepsin solution. Considerable work was 

 also done upon the artificial digestion of meats, tliis, however, being 

 largely preliminary to work to be done later. In addition, the heats 

 of combustion of fifty samples of foods and excretory products in 

 duplicate were determined. Finallj^ an inquiry has been undertaken 

 regarding the so-called extractives in meat. 



In Tennessee, Prof. C. E. Wait, of the University of Tennessee, 

 Knox\'ille, has been investigating the dietary of poor whites in eastern 

 Tennessee and the digestibility and availability of the nutrients *of 

 legumes. Six dietary studies were made with typical families of white 

 people of limited means, and interesting results were obtained. For 

 the experiments on the digestibility of legumes, beans were selected, 

 and eight digestion experiments were made, including one metabolism 

 experiment. These were not less than four days in duration, and were 

 made for the x3urpose of determining not only tlie digestibility and 

 availability of the nutrients of the legumes, but also the effect of 

 rations of wide nutritive ratio as well as those of rather narrow nutri- 

 tive ratio upon the digestibility of protein and the metabolism of 

 nitrogen. 



In California, Prof. M. E. Jaffa, at the University of California, 

 Berkeley, has been making special investigations as to the food value of 

 fruits. Nine dietarj^ studies were made and one digestion experiment, 

 which also included a metabolism experiment. The subjects of the 

 experiments were five fruitarians, two women and three children, 

 whose diet had been for a long time almost wholly composed of fruits 

 and nuts. They appeared to be in excellent health, and claimed to 

 be better than when they lived upon a mixed diet. The food was all 

 eaten raw, and the total quantitj^ of nutrients was very small in com- 

 parison with ordinary dietary standards. The digestibility of the diet 

 ai)peared to be as great as that of an ordinary mixed diet. 



FOOD AND NUTRITION PUBLICATIONS. 



Seven technical bulletins, two Farmers' Bulletins, a Yearbook arti- 

 cle, and two circulars on subjects relating to the food and nutrition 

 of man were i^repared for the press during the i)ast year, making in 

 the aggregate 450 to 500 pages of printed matter on this subject. 



Nutrition Investigations at the California Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, 1896-1898, by M. E. Jaffa, assistant professor of agriculture, 

 University of California (Bulletin No. 81, pp. 39), reports four dietary 

 studies of infants, one of the university football team during train- 

 ing, and one of a chemist's familj^; also digestion experiments with an 

 infant on a milk diet, as well as a metabolism experiment in which 

 the balance of income and outgo of nitrogen was determined. 



A Report of Investigations on the Digestibility and Nutritive 

 Value of Bread, by Charles D. Woods, director, and L. H. Merrill, 

 chemist, Maine Agricultural Experiment Station (Bulletin No. 85, 

 pp. 51). This bulletin is a progress report, giving the results of 

 experiments with men on the digestibility of bread of various kinds 

 when eaten alone and when forming a part of a simple mixed diet; 

 artificial digestion experiments with the same sorts of bread; a test 

 of skim milk V. water for use in mixing dough; and studies of the 

 loss of nutrients in bread making and of methods of determining 

 metabolic nitrogen. 



Experiments on the Effect of Muscular Work upon the Digestibility 

 of Food and the Metabolism of Nitrogen, conducted at the University 



