72 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 355 



before the American Society of Biological Chemistry, Baltimore, March, 1938, 

 was published in Proc. Soc. Biol. Chem. 87, 1938. 



3. Effect of Riboflavin and Thiamin Chloride upon the Catar ado genie Action 

 of Galactose. While no gross symptoms of vitamin deficiencies have existed at 

 any time, it seemed possible that galactose might create an unusual metabolic 

 demand for certain vitamins. Two crystalline fractions of the vitamin B complex 

 were supplied by Merck & Company for this investigation. Rats fed an adequate 

 ration containing 25 percent galactose showed normal growth and approximately 

 the same incidence of cataract regardless of the amount of extra vitamin supple- 

 ments. Two groups of rats fed massive doses, 2000 micrograms riboflavin and 

 2000 micrograms thiamin chloride respectively, showed an incidence of cataract 

 similar to litter-mate controls receiving 50 and 20 micrograms of each. It was 

 concluded from these data that massive doses of riboflavin or thiamin chloride 

 •exert lio protective action against the development of galactose cataract in rats. 

 This paper was published in Proc. Soc. Exper. Biol. Med. 39:325, 1938. 



4. The Influence of Calcium Salts on Lactose Metabolism. Incidental to the 

 work on lactose and galactose metabolism in rats it was noted that certain calcium 

 salts exerted an inhibitory influence on lactose absorption. Research now in 

 progress is attempting to explain the nature of this inhibitory action and the 

 differences observed between the different salts used. 



A Study of the Nutrition of College Women with Respect to Vitamin C Re- 

 quirements. (H. S. Mitchell and O. A. Merriam. Conducted as a joint project 

 with Rhode Island State College. E. L. Batchelder cooperating.) One of the 

 problems which is a challenge in the field of nutrition today is that of finding a 

 valid approach to an estimation of human vitamin requirements. The estimated 

 intake of vitamin C in food plus the titrated ascorbic acid value of the urine were 

 chosen as the most practicable criteria for the study of vitamin C nutrition on a 

 college campus. 



These survey studies were conducted at Massachusetts State College and at 

 Rhode Island State College with 209 freshman women and 40 junior women as 

 subjects. Most of them ate at the respective college cafeterias and records were 

 kept of amount and kind of food consumed for periods of from 8 to 15 days pre- 

 ceding the urinary study. One or two consecutive 24-hour urine collections were 

 made by each girl in the fall and again in the late winter. Ascorbic acid content 

 was determined by a modification of Tillmans' titration method on the acidified, 

 pooled 24-hour specimen. 



Ascorbic Acid Excretion in the Urine 



Place Period Number of Ascorbic Acid per 24 Hours 



and Date Subjects 



Period 1 



Range Average 



mg. mg. 



3 to 80 20 



8 to 78 22 



1 to 73 IS 



7 to 145 33 



3 to 106 27 



R. I.S. C 1937 40 2 to 158 28 



The ranges and averages of excretion values for the three groups at the same 

 season of the year were strikingly similar. While the averages were within normal 



