220 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



gations also referred to in my last report as being carried on by 

 authority of the New York State commission in lunacy, for the pur- 

 pose of establishing a standard dietary for use in the hospitals for the 

 insane in the State of New York, have been continued during the past 

 year. A number of dietary studies have been made in the New York 

 hospitals. Much attention has been directed to preparing the results 

 of the investigations for practical use and publication. These results, 

 also, will prove a useful contribution to the knowledge already gained 

 of the general subject of the nutrition of man. The investigations 

 have attracted considerable attention, especially among those inter- 

 ested in sociological and economic questions, and may lead to broader 

 and more extended investigations along these lines. 



In Maine, Prof. C. D. Woods, at the University of Maine, Orono, 

 has been comparing the digestibility of breads made from Northwest- 

 ern wheat milled in different ways. This was a repetition of the 

 experiments conducted the previous year in order to verify and sub- 

 stantiate the results then obtained. Straight patent, so-called entire 

 wheat, and graham flours were used, and nine digestion experiments, 

 with three subjects, were made. Three experiments were conducted 

 with each subject with the different flours, and included considerable 

 analytical work. Considerable work has also been done with Maine 

 wheats milled in different ways. In addition, two digestion experi- 

 ments Avere made with chestnuts, and a long series of studies were 

 carried out with different materials as markers, for the purpose of 

 perfecting a method for obtaining more accurate results in digestion 

 experiments. The work on the different kinds of flour is of great 

 practical importance and has added much to the knowledge of the 

 relative digestibility of the nutrients of these three flours, a subject 

 which has been much discussed. 



In Minnesota, Prof. Harry Snyder, of the Agricultural College of 

 the University of Minnesota, St. Anthony Park, has been cooperating 

 with Professor Woods in the experiments with flour. The oppor- 

 tunity for work of this kind in that section is especially favorable, 

 since it is in the center of the milling district of the Northwest, and 

 most fortunately some of the great milling establishments, finding 

 the inquiry of decided practical value, have offered unusual facilities 

 for experiments upon the milling products and bread made from 

 them. Nine digestion experiments with three different subjects have 

 been made with straight patent, so-called entire wheat, and graham 

 flours. These flours were all milled from the same lot of wheat and 

 were duplicate samples of those used by Professor Woods, and the 

 experiments were parallel in every respect. 



In Illinois, Prof. H. S. Grindley, of the University of Illinois, Cham- 

 paign, has continued his investigations on the digestibility of meats, 

 as determined by natural and artificial digestion experiments, and the 

 losses involved in different methods of cooking various kinds of meat. 

 These were in continuation of the investigations conducted the two 

 previous years, a report of which is soon to be published. Fifteen 

 cooking experiments were made, in which the results obtained in fry- 

 ing and boiling were compared, beef being the meat generally used. 

 The experiments included the analysis of a considerable number of 

 cooked meats, clear broth, and the coarse and fine residues obtained 

 from meat broths. Thirteen natural digestion experiments with men 

 were also made, in which meat formed a large part of the diet. These 

 experiments included a large amount* of analytical work with food and 

 feces and the determination of the nitrogenous material in several 



