CP 
CJD 
SCIENTIFIC PROCEEDINGS. *o*c 
Abstracts of the Communications. UA*ufftN. 
Forty fourth meeting. 
University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College. May 17 , 1911. 
71 (596) 
The balance of acid-forming and base-forming elements in 
foods, and its relation to ammonia metabolism. 
By H. C. SHERMAN and A. 0. GETTLER. 
[From the Laboratory of Food Chemistry, Columbia University.] 
In continuation of previous work 1 ash analyses have been made 
of a number of foods and from the percentages of total sulphur, 
phosphorus and chlorine on the one hand, and of sodium, potas- 
ium, calcium and magnesium on the other, the excess of acid 
over base or of base over acid which will result from the oxidation 
of the food has been calculated. Previous ash analyses have also 
been studied and supplemented by such determinations as were 
necessary to permit the calculation of this balance for a wide 
range of food materials. Meats and eggs show a predominance 
of acid-forming elements ; in fruits and vegetables the base-forming 
elements predominate. From this standpoint the fruits and 
vegetables tend to balance the meats of the diet. Milk and the 
cereals contain acid-forming and base-forming elements in more 
nearly equivalent proportions. 
Through the kindness of Mr. L. H. Smith, samples of corn 
which had been bred through ten generations for high and low 
protein content respectively were obtained from the Illinois Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station. The ash-analyses of these were very 
similar except for the higher sulphur content of the high protein 
corn, which resulted in this sample showing a slight predominance 
of acid-forming elements, while in the low protein corn the base- 
forming elements predominated. 
In order to determine to what extent the excess of acid brought 
Sherman and Sinclair, Jour. Biol. Chem,, Vol. III., 307. 
119 
