76 HATCH EXPEKIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



when fully hydrolized, these substances are as digestible aa 

 starch and its hydrolized product ; and in this respect they 

 differ from the pentoses and their anhj^drides. J. Konig 

 and F. Reinhardt^ report experiments with a man in which 

 canned peas, dried peas and other foods rich in pentosans 

 were added to a mixed diet. The results indicated that the 

 pentosans were very thoroughly digested and assimilated. 



A number of experiments have been made with farm ani- 

 mals, to study the digestibility of the pentosans. In 1892, 

 Stone ^ fed corn meal and wheat bran to rabbits, and found 

 that about 60 per cent, of the pentosans did not reappear in 

 the faeces. A like conclusion was drawn a year later by 

 Stone and Jones ^ from hay and diflerent grasses fed to 

 sheep. Lindsey and Holland'^ fed hay and different grains 

 to sheep, and found from 55 to 90 per cent, of the pentosans 

 digested, traces onl}' being recognized in the urine. Weiske 

 and Wicke reported similar results.^ Sherman*^ found the 

 pentosans in wheat bran to be 66.2 per cent, digested. 

 Fraps "^ determined the digestibility of pentosans in a number 

 of cattle feeds. The pentosans in the crude fibre he termed 

 pseudo-pentosans, which proved less digestible than what he 

 termed the true pentosans, as found in the nitrogen-free 

 extract. 



In addition to the experiments already reported,^ the 

 writer^ has made a number of others Avith different vai'ieties 

 of hays and grains. 



The table which follows contains the percentage and di- 

 gestion coefficient of the pentosans, and, for the sake of 

 comparison, the percentages and digestion coefficients of each 

 of the other groups of substances in the several feed stufi's. 



^ Zeitsch. Untersuch. Nahr. u. Genussmtl., 1902, No. 3, pp. 111-116. 

 ^ Am. Chem. Journal, 14, p. 9. 

 ^ Agricultural Science, 5, p. 6. 



* Twelfth report of Massachusetts State Experiment Station, \>. 175; report 

 of the Society for Promotion of Agricultural Science, 189.5, p. .54. 



° Zeitsch. f. physiol. Chem., 20, p. 489. 



* Journal of the Am. Chem., Sec. 19, p. 308. 



' North Carolina Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 172. 

 ' Loco citato. 



* Together with E. B. Holland. 



