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SGIENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 164. 



Howell (Johns Hopkins), Lee (Columbia), 

 Loeb (Chicago), Lombard (Michigan) and 

 Porter (Harvard), and its report consisted 

 of an account of its labors during the pre- 

 ceding six months. These labors culmi- 

 nated in the establishment of a new journal. 

 The American Journal of Physiology, the first 

 number of which was presented to the So- 

 ciety. This publication is the outcome of a 

 feeling of the need of ready means of pub- 

 lication, long held by American physiolo- 

 gists. It will be issued under the auspices 

 of the Society, with about one volume a 

 year, and with the above committee as the 

 board of editors. It will be devoted solely 

 to the publication of the results of original 

 researches in physiology and allied sci- 

 ences, and is issued in an unusually attrac- 

 tive and serviceable form, with Ginn & 

 Company as publishers. The Society passed 

 a vote of thanks to the committee, and 

 especially to Professor Porter for his zeal- 

 ous labor in behalf of the new publication. 



A communication from Drs. John W. 

 Graham and H. Sewall, of the local com- 

 mittee for the Denver meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Medical Association, was presented, 

 inviting the Society to attend the coming 

 meeting of the Association in June. Pro- 

 fessor Sherrington (Liverpool), on behalf 

 of the British physiologists, sent a cordial 

 invitation to the Society to take part in the 

 proceedings of the International Physio- 

 logical Congress in Cambridge, England, in 

 August, 1898. 



One year ago, at the suggestion of Dr. S. 

 Weir Mitchell, a commission was organized 

 by the Society to investigate the physiolog- 

 ical properties of the edible and poisonous 

 fungi. This commission now consists of 

 Professors Chittenden (Yale), chairman, 

 Abel (Johns Hopkins), Pfaff (Harvard) 

 and Bowditch (Harvard). During the past 

 year it has inaugurated work in several 

 laboratories, and the results of this work 

 were in part presented at Ithaca. Profes- 



sor L. B. Mendel (Yale) reported his re- 

 searches upon the composition and nutri- 

 tive value of some edible American mush- 

 rooms. Chemical analyses were combined 

 with experiments in artificial digestion, and 

 special attention was given to the amount 

 of available (digestible) proteid present. 

 The latter was found to be not over two or 

 three per cent, in fresh mushrooms, which 

 shows that the prevailing idea of the great 

 nutritive value of mushrooms is not yet 

 justified. They may be valuable as dietetic 

 accessories, but they do not deserve the 

 term ' vegetable beefsteak.' Their nitrogen 

 is largely in the form of non-proteid bodies. 

 The amount of fat, cholesterin, soluble car- 

 bohydrates, crude fiber and inorganic sub- 

 stances contained in them corresponds in 

 general with that found in other vegetable 

 foods, such as peas, corn and potatoes. 

 Professor Chittenden reported the results 

 of some preliminary experiments upon 

 the toxicity of some species of poisonous 

 mushrooms, made by Dr. W. S. Carter 

 (University of Texas). In view of the 

 great interest now shown in the edibility 

 of mushrooms, the investigations of the 

 commission, which are being actively con- 

 tinued, will prove of immediate practical 

 value. 



A number of papers on physiological 

 chemistry from the Yale laboratories were 

 presented. Professor Chittenden gave the 

 results of a study of the variations in the 

 amylolytic power of the human saliva and 

 their relation to the chemical composition 

 of the secretion. Saliva collected before 

 breakfast is stronger in amylolytic power 

 than that secreted after breakfast. Simi- 

 larly, the alkalinity of the former (due to 

 alkaline phosphates and indicated by lac- 

 moid) and its acidity (due to acid phos- 

 phates and indicated by phenolphthalein) 

 are greater than the same properties in 

 saliva collected after breakfast. The greater 

 amylolytic power is due not to the greater 



