8 



Scientific Proceedings (ioi). 



mannan respectively, and the coefficient of digestibility was 96 

 per cent. This was the largest amount administered to any sub- 

 ject. There was in no case any discomfort from gas formation, or 

 other evidence of fermentation. 



A detailed study of the nitrogen intake and output in the 

 experiments on the two young women showed an increase in 

 the fecal nitrogen accompanied by a marked increase in the 

 volume of dry feces. There was a slight fall in the urinary nitrogen 

 in the salep period and an increase of 16 and 17 per cent, re- 

 spectively in the after period. This may have been due to de- 

 crease in the urine volume in the salep period and a subsequent 

 "flushing out." 



There was no evidence of sugar formation in the diabetic 

 organism. In one case 10 grams were given in a day with no 

 other food but broth, coffee and whiskey, and in another 45 

 grams, the urine in both cases remaining sugar free. For a five- 

 day period a fifteen-year-old diabetic boy was kept on a controlled 

 diet, and salep averaging 56 grams per day given for three days. 

 Salep did not stop the production of /3-oxybutyric acid, which 

 rose from 3.4 grams on the day before the salep feeding to 15 grams 

 on the third day. 



Glycogen storage in the livers of rabbits could not be demon- 

 strated, though mannose has been shown to form glycogen reaidly. 

 The animals were starved five or six days, then fed salep by 

 stomach sound for from one to three days. They were killed 

 twelve to fifteen hours after the last feeding, but only traces of 

 glycogen were found after administration of as much as 30 grams 

 of salep in a day. The largest amount was 35 milligrams, whereas 

 a rabbit fed 15 grams starch as a control had 209 milligrams. In 

 two rabbits 16 and 60 per cent, respectfully of the mannan was 

 recovered from the alimentary tract and identified. 



It was thought that since creatine elimination induced by 

 starvation may be made to disappear by administration of calori- 

 cally insufficient carbohydrate, carefully controlled experiments 

 with rabbits might afford evidence as to the utilization of this 

 mannan in metabolism. A series of experiments in which rabbits 

 were starved from three to six days, then salep fed by stomach 

 sound for two or three days, showed nothing especially significant 



