MarcH 8, 1912] 
edible meat of the eleven whelesale cuts of beef 
obtained from three steers—the flank, plate, rib, 
rump and loin were highest in fat, and the clod, 
round and shanks in protein. Fat made up from 
68 to 92 per cent. of the total calorific value. The 
energy varied directly as the percentage of fat, 
ranging from 235.1 calories in the clod to 554.9 in 
the flank. Comparing the grams of meat required 
to supply 100 calories from the fat and protein, it 
takes about half as much of the fatter cuts. The 
most economic cuts from this standpoint are the 
chuck, plate, clod and shanks. 
BE. W. Morse and L. W. FrErzer: The Present 
Knowledge in Regard to the Nature of Peach 
Yellows Disease. 
Summing up our present knowledge in regard 
to the disease of peach trees known as yellows, it 
seems natural to conclude that this is a constitu- 
tional disease which is inheritable; that is, the 
progeny have inherited a hypersusceptibility to the 
disease. The symptoms of the disease—premature 
ripening of the peach and the appearance of super- 
ficial red spots and streaks throughout the flesh 
of the same, and a yellowing of the leaves the fol- 
lowing spring, ete.—seem to point to the hypoth- 
esis that the disease is a metabolic one, due to a 
disturbance of the equilibrium among the enzymes 
of the plant. Probably there is a hyper-production 
of the oxidases and a lesser production of the 
other enzymes, which are active during the life 
eyele of the plant. 
A. R. Rose: The Influence of Phytin on Seedlings. 
Phytin has been found universally present in 
seeds and by some investigators considered to play 
a significant réle in germination and early growth 
of plants and the growths of animals. Nagaoka, 
Aso and Yoshida in the Imperial Agriculture Col- 
lege in Tokyo have shown that the phosphorus of 
plants are less beneficial to plant growth than that 
from animal scraps and wastes, also that the 
soluble organic phosphorus gave poorer ultimate 
results as fertilizer material than lecithans and the 
various inorganic forms of ortho-phosphates except 
AIPO, and FePO,. In view of this, experiments 
were planned and executed to determine, if pos- 
sible, what the influence of these phosphorus com- 
pounds may be upon the earliest growth of the 
plants. Lupin seedlings were germinated and 
afterwards allowed to grow in nutrient solutions, 
some of which contained a phytin compound, for 
periods of two or more weeks and the influence on 
the primary root noted. The results seemed to 
indicate that the several phytates behaved in the 
SCIENCE 
393 
same manner as the corresponding ortho-phos- 
phates. There was no suggestion of any specific 
influence of the phytic anion upon the seedlings. 
The phytin solutions in which the seedlings had 
grown showed no increase in inorganic phosphorus 
nor inosite and there was therefore no evidence 
that the phytase of the seed acted upon the phytin 
in the surrounding liquid. The author contem- 
plates further experiments along this line. 
A. R. Rose and J. T. Cusick: The Influence of 
Phosphorus Compounds on the Yield and Com- 
position of Goat’s Milk. 
A preliminary report of a metabolism experi- 
ment, the fifth of a series planned by Director 
Jordan. The former experiments conducted with 
cows gave interesting results with respect to the 
milk flow and composition. There was a consistent 
increase of fat and decrease of milk volume with 
the increase of phosphorus over a very low phos- 
phorus ration, and vice versa. The other constitu- 
ents of the milk were not appreciably affected. 
A recent paper by Fingerling gives results con- 
trary to these conclusions, but he used goats and 
his rations were of different constituents in the 
high and low phosphorus periods. The data from 
this experiment tend to confirm the conclusions 
of the previous experiments at this station and 
are not at all in harmony with Fingerling’s ob- 
servations, but the results are not as consistent as 
were those when cows were used. There is a 
regular parallelism between the milk flow and the 
various constituents of the milk, except with re- 
spect to the fat. In two of the four periods the 
fat increased and the milk flow decreased with the 
increase of phosphorus in the rations; in the other 
two periods the reverse was true. Further investi- 
gations are now in progress at this station. 
A. R. Rose: The Tomicity of Phytin. 
A series of experiments conducted on rabbits 
weighing approximately 2 kilograms gave in two 
cases unexpected results. Feeding five grams of 
the sodium salt of phytin was followed in one and 
one half hours by death. Analysis of the stomach 
and intestinal content yielded almost half of the 
soluble organic phosphorus administered. Death 
was therefore apparently due to 3.2 grams and 
3.66 grams sodium phytate, or 1.7 grams per 
kilogram. 
Methods used and an improved cage described. 
H. M. Apurr: Vicarious Fat Deposits in Rabbits 
Chronically Poisoned with Oil. 
A. A. EPSTEIN and S. Bookman: Studies in Glyco- 
coll Formation in the Body. 
