CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF FOOD-FISHES. 
831 
“extraordinarily well flavored,’ 7 it was very difficult to swallow it the 
second day and required great effort the third. The digestion, however, 
seemed to be normal, and all but about 1 per cent, of the protein was 
digested. Other trials with meat and with fish have brought similar 
results, and it is reasonably safe to say that when a healthy person 
with sound digestive organs eats ordinary meat in proper quantities 
all or nearly all of *the protein is digested. Some of the fats of meats, 
however, seem to fail of digestion. 
The number of accurate experiments of this kind is still very small. 
Some sixty or thereabouts have been reported. Nearly all have been 
made within 10 years past, and the majority in one laboratory, that of 
the University of Munich. Most of the subjects have been men with 
healthy digestive organs, two or three laboratory servants, a soldier, 
several medical students, and a few others. Several have been made, 
however, with children of a few families ; all but a very small number 
were conducted in Germany. 
Sometime since it was my fortune to pass a number of months in 
Munich, where, through the courtesy of Professor Yoit, director of the 
Physiological Institute of the university, I was enabled to make some 
experiments on the digestion of meat and fish by a man and by a dog. 
Each lived for 3 days upon haddock, and then for 3 days upon lean 
meat, beefsteak. The dog was used to such experiments, and got on 
very comfortably, indeed. The meat and fish were each cooked with a 
little lard. He did not take to the fish at first, but after he got used to 
it seemed to like it. The first attempt with a man was with the same 
healthy, rather stolid, Bavarian laborer with whom Dr. Bubner’s ex- 
periments with meat and bread, above referred to, were performed. He 
bore up very well through the trials with both the fish and meat, but 
the assistant discovered at the end that he had surreptitiously eaten 
sourcrout, and the experiment was spoiled. 
Fortunately, a medical student, then working in the laboratory, be- 
came interested in the subject, and offered himself as a martyr to the 
cause. He had for 3 days flesh of haddock fried with butter, flavored 
with salt, pepper, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce, and taken with 
beer and wine. Then came a period of rest ; that is to say, ordinary 
diet, and then a similar trial of beefsteak. I was with him at every 
meal and can bear warm testimony to his fortitude and determination. 
The menu was made as appetizing as possible under the circumstances. 
The first day of each trial went pretty well, the second day it was diffi- 
cult, and the third day extremely so, to swallow the whole. As the 
result, it appeared that he digested nearly the whole of both the meat 
and the fish. The results of the experiments are stated in tabular form 
herewith. The percentage of each ingredient which escaped digestion 
is given. In some case a correction for certain errors of experiment, 
which need not be discussed here, is applied to the figures for amounts 
“ apparently undigested, 77 to show those estimated to be “actually 77 
digested. 
