1477 
computed from the nitrogen-content. To two hens, weighing 
respectively 1110 grms and 1960 grms, 30—40 germs of aleuronat 
was passed into the crop daily, excepting the last days, when the 
erop did not discharge itself regularly. The one showed, already 
on the 17 day, unmistakable signs: of the disease, its body-weight 
fell 29.7°/,; the other only on the 37 day, with a loss of 33.7°/, 
in weight. The comparatively long period of incubation in the 
latter case, may be associated again with the considerable original 
body-weight. As to the first case, however, the result can hardly be 
deemed less unfavourable than with a polished-rice or with a starch-diet. 
Funk’s interpretation (in our opinion somewhat one-sided) that 
vitamins play an active part in the carbohydrate-metabolism, a much 
more important part than in the metabolism of other foodstuffs, is 
perhaps best refuted by the starvation experiments. During starvation 
the body is thrown upon its own resources for fat and for protein, 
the store of carbohydrates being soon exhausted. Now, if we bear 
in mind that starvation may pave the way for polyneuritis gallina- 
rum, we can realize that the consumption of protective substances 
may be greater than can be “met by the shrinking fat- and muscle- 
tissues, so that the organism is gradually getting poorer in these 
substances not only absolutely, but also relatively. 
Next we wish to report some experiments carried out with a view to 
ascertain whether the emaciation that, with a one-sided diet often pre- 
cedes the outbreak of a disease, is, like the disease itself, attributable 
to a deficiency of special substances, or to an unfavourable ratio of the 
principal food-stuffs : protein, fat, and carbohydrates. For protein was 
given ovalbumin siccum, for fat oleum olivarum, and polished rice or 
marantha-starch represented the carbohydrates. The oil had been previ- 
ously shaken up with a dilute soda-solution, the albuntin dissolved 
in an excess of salt-solution, precipitated with alcohol and evaporated 
to dryness, all which was done to remove occasional protective con- 
stituents in these foodstuffs. 
The results of these experiments have been brought together in 
Table II. (See p. 1478). 
The results are inconclusive. Whereas those with a simple rice 
diet and with a simple amylum maranthae-diet agree fairly well 
— which is somewhat surprising considering the far simpler composition 
of the latter — the other data seem to teach us that, when part 
of the rice is exchanged for an approximately iso-dynamic quantity 
of albumin or of fat, the period of incubation remains about the 
same, but the relative loss in body-weight slightly decreases. On 
5% 
