INOVEMBER 6, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



415 



superior, 26 ; right superior, 29. In criminals, 

 however, the left side is 11 per cent more sensi- 

 tive than the right ; and their sensibility is only 

 S3 per cent of the normal ; i. e. their sensibility is 

 more obtuse, and the normal relations on the two 

 sides are reversed. In 100 criminals the sensibility 

 is equal bi-laterally in 54 : left superior in 27 ; 

 right superior, 18. One hundred and four insane 

 patients were examined, 43 per cent of whom 

 were more sensitive on the right, 33 per cent on the 

 left side, and 24 per cent were equally sensitive on 

 the two sides. As left-sidedness of this kind be- 

 comes more frequent, the difference between the 

 two sides of the body becomes greater. This 

 phenomenon the author calls 'laterahty,' and 

 recognizes as a true pathological symptom. In 

 the blind, as in normal people, the right side is the 

 more sensitive, and is as much as 13.5 per cent 

 superior to the left. But then- absolute sensibility 

 is 96 per cent of the normal,^ i.e., slightly less 

 than that of seeing persons. The male blind are 

 more sensitive on the left side, the females on the 

 right. Their ' laterahty ' and prevalence of left- 

 sidedness aUies them to abnormal classes. In 

 deaf mutes the left sensibiUty is 15.5 per cent 

 better than the right, and their absolute sensibility 

 is like that of the blind, 4 per cent inferior to 

 the normal. Left-sidedness, too, is prevalent. 



J. J. 



COMPOSITION OF THE WHEAT GRAIN. 



The various grades of wheat flour differ from 

 each other, chiefly as regards the admixture of the 

 outer coats of the grain and of the germ found 

 in the pulverized endosperm which constitutes the 

 bulk of the flour. The problem which M. Girard 

 in his recent book^ proposed to himself was to 

 separate the grain, not into flour and bran, but 

 into the several tissues of which the microscope 

 shows it to be composed, to determine the pro- 

 portion of each contained in the grain, to analyze 

 each, and, finally, to determiae from these and 

 other data the ahmentary value of each tissue and 

 the advisability of allowuig it to enter into the 

 finished flour. By very ingenious methods, and 

 the expenditure of much time and patience, he was 

 able to separate, first, the coats of the grain from 

 the endosperm, and, second, the several tissues of 

 the seed coats from each other. The results of 

 this laborious investigation are very interesting, 



1 This conclusion is contrary to the prevailing opinion. 

 Moreover, the careful experiments of Czermak on blind boys 

 showed very clearly that their sensibility was better than 

 that of seeing persons. It should also be noted that the 

 left side is frequently referred to as the more sensitive. 



'^ Composition chimique et valeur alimentaire des diverses 

 irties flu grain de froment. Par M. 

 Gauthier-Villars, 1884. 67 p., 3 pi. 8°. 



parties du grain de froment. Par M. AiMfi Girard. Paris 

 '•-Vir - ■ -- - - 



and enable us to form a much more accurate no- 

 tion of the quantitative distribution of nitrogenous 

 matters, ash, woody fibre and fat among these 

 tissues than was possible before. At the same 

 time it cannot be said that, aside from this, they 

 constitute any very material addition to our 

 knowledge. They show that the ' aleurone layer ' 

 is rich in nitrogenous matters, and contains very 

 nearly all of the nutritive substances found in the 

 seed coats, but this was well enough knowTi 

 before. 



Of more general interest are his investigations 

 of the nutritive value of the several seed coats, 

 and of their influence upon the quahty of bread ; 

 but here, unfortunately, a prejudice becomes ap- 

 parent which detracts seriously from the value of 

 the investigations. The author entitles this sec- 

 tion of his book 'Experiments upon the non- 

 digestibility by man of the envelope of the wheat 

 grain ' (the italics are ours), and he allows this pre- 

 possession to lead him into some serious errors in 

 interpreting his results. His digestion experiment 

 (but one was made) was executed upon himself, 

 and, according to his interpretation, showed that 

 but an insignificant proportion of the total dry 

 matter or of the proteine of the envelope was 

 digested. Before the experiment, however, he 

 extracted his materials with water. The amount 

 of matter thus extracted is stated, but it is not 

 counted as digestible, as it evidently should be, 

 because, as the author himself says, "it is evident 

 that they (the extracted matters) would be dissolved 

 in the digestive apparatus." 



Correcting this error, and also a gross error in the 

 method of calculation employed for the proteine, 

 we find that there was really digested 22.8 percent 

 of the dry matter and 35 per cent of the proteine 

 of the envelope, or that it contained 22.8 per cent 

 of total digestible matter, including 6.5 per cent of 

 digestible proteine. Girard's figures are 6.77 per 

 cent of total digestible matter and 0.73 per cent of 

 digestible proteine ! 



Rubner, in some recent investigations ^ obtained 

 still higher figures, viz., 31.3 per cent of the dry 

 matter, 61.1 per cent of the proteme, and 26.6 per 

 cent of the non-nitrogenous matters ; but his 

 figures were obtained by a rather complicated 

 calculation, and refer rather to commercial bran 

 than to the clean seed coats of Girard's experi- 

 ments. There is no sort of doubt that a not in- 

 considerable proportion of the seed coats is digesti- 

 ble by man, but, as Girard emphasizes, when 

 calculated upon the whole grain the proportion 

 thus utilized is small, while the quality of the 

 bread is impaired. This is particularly the case 

 with raised bread. According to Mege-Mom-ies 

 1 Jahresbericht iiber thler-chemie, xili. 384. 



