Amino-Acid Synthesis. 



99 



during which the same diet was fed in an unpalatable condition 

 and in dirty and unpleasant surroundings. The food was rendered 

 unpalatable and unappetizing by the following treatment. All 

 the food ordinarily used for each meal (meat, biscuits, jelly, corn- 

 starch pudding, oleomargarine, etc.) was stirred together in a 

 large, flat porcelain dish. The dish itself was smeared with animal 

 charcoal, as was the beaker used as a drinking glass. The table 

 was dirty and strewn with dirty dishes. A little indol was sprinkled 

 about under the table. The subjects were kept in ignorance of 

 the constituents of the unpalatable mixture. The food was so 

 unpalatable that one subject vomited his first meal shortly after 

 he had eaten it. 



The following table shows the findings on the other subject. 



Period. 



No. of 

 Days. 



Nitrogen. 



Per- 

 centage 

 Utiliza- 

 tion. 



Ingested. 



Excreted. 



Balance. 



Daily, 

 Grams. 



Period, 

 Grams. 



Urine, 

 Grams. 



Feces, 

 Grams. 



Total, 

 Grams. 



Period, 

 Grams. 



Daily, 

 Grams. 





7 



2 



10-75 



10.75 



75-25 

 21.50 



62.95 

 17.03 



10.06 

 3.09 



73-01 

 20.12 



+2.24 

 + 1.38 



+O.32 

 +O.69 



86.7 

 85-7 



Unpalatable .... 



The differences in utilization of the palatable and unpalatable 

 foods were quite small as were the variations in nitrogen retention. 

 This short test indicates that flavor is not the outstanding dietetic 

 asset that some people would have us believe. 



59 (1519) 



Amino-acid synthesis in the organism of the white rat. 



By Howard B. Lewis and Lucie E. Root. 



[From the Laboratory of Physiological Chemistry of the University of 



Illinois, Urbana.] 



It is generally conceded that the organism of the white rat 

 must be supplied with an adequate amount of lysine if normal 

 growth is to result. The purpose of the present series of experi- 

 ments was to determine whether a-aminocaproic acid (norleucine), 

 which has been shown to be present in the proteins of the central 



