Diet on the Composition of the Body. 8i 



not possible ordinarily to upset the relative composition of the 

 body by dietetic measures, aside from altering the fat and glycogen 

 content. Normal growth proceeds only through assimilation of 

 all the essential body constituents in the proportion in which they 

 are normally found in the body ; and in tissue disintegration the 

 loss is likewise general, not restricted to individual components of 

 the fundamental structure. 



44 (300) 



The chemical composition of nonstriated mammalian muscle. 

 By LAFAYETTE B. MENDEL and TADASU SAIKI. 



\From the Sheffield Laboratory of Physiological Chemistry, Yale 



University.] 



In view of the paucity of data on the chemical composition of 

 nonstriated muscle, Dr. Saiki has made an extensive study of the 

 urinary bladder and muscular coat of the stomach of the pig. The 

 details will be published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. 

 The preparations studied contained a considerably larger propor- 

 tion of connective tissue (and presumably lymph spaces) than the 

 corresponding skeletal muscles. This factor, involving the possible 

 contamination with tissue lymph, must be taken into consideration 

 in an interpretation of the analytical data. Hypoxanthin is the 

 predominant purin base present. Creatin and paralactic acid can 

 also be isolated. There is little, if any, glycogen in the nonstriated 

 muscles examined ; but the tissues possess the property of trans- 

 forming glycogen in the characteristic enzymatic way. The most 

 interesting contribution is a rather complete analysis of the inor- 

 ganic constituents indicating a difference in their relative distribu- 

 tion in comparison with skeletal muscle, which can be accounted 

 for in part only by an admixture of lymph. 



Comparative Composition of Pig's Muscle and Blood Serum. 





K 2 0 



Na 2 0 



Fe 2 0 3 



CaO 



MgO 



CI 



P,0 5 



H 2 0 



Nonstriated muscle 



O.081 



O.328 



O.OI I 



O.O44 



O.O07 



O.171 



0.184 



80.6 



Skeletal muscle (Katz).. 



0.306 



0.2IO 



0.008 



O.OII 



0.047 



0.048 



0.487 



72.9 



Blood serum (Abderhal- 















O.027 



O.425 





O.OI2 



0. 004 



O.363 



0.020 



91.8 



