40 



authoritative and careful analyses of these plants ever undertaken 

 in our country were made by L,. B. Mendel of the Sheffield Lab- 

 oratory of Physiological Chemistry at Yale University, and pub- 

 lished in the American Journal Phys. i. 225-238. In this article 

 Mr. Mendel draws comparisons between many kinds of foods such 

 as beef, flour, beans, potatoes and cabbages, compared with sev- 

 eral species of mushrooms He first goes on to show, that mush- 

 rooms, like most other vegetables, are composed largely of water, 

 averaging between 70 and 92 per cent. He then shows that in 

 the dry plants from 2 to 6 per cent of nitrogen is present, but that 

 the mistake has been in thinking that on account of this high 

 nitrogen content, all of it is of necessity available nitrogen. He 

 shows the fallacy of this belief by proving that the proteid con- 

 tent, or the food nitrogen substance, is not higher than 3^2 per 

 cent. The fat extracts by ether he shows to be never higher than 

 6 per cent. Now comparing these with a few vegetables and 

 meats, we can arrive at a betttr understanding of the food value 

 of these fungi. 



Nutritive Value of Ten Pounds of the Several Foods. 



