THE DIGESTIBILITY OF THE DASHEEN. 9 
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS. 
The amount of dasheen eaten during the test periods varies from 
an average of 376 grams per man per day in experiment No. 548 to 
an average of 731 grams per man per day in experiment No. 522, the 
general average for the 10 experiments being 547 grams per man per 
day. 
Considering the 10 experiments with both the immature and ma- 
ture dasheen together (see p. 8), it will be seen that, on an average, 
41 grams of protein, 129 grams of fat, and 231 grams of carbohydrates 
were eaten per man per day, of which 80.8 per cent of the protein, 
96.1 per cent of the fat, and 97.6 per cent of the carbohydrates sup- 
plied by the total diet were digested. 
The coefficient of digestibility of the fat (99 per cent of which 
was butter fat) furnished by the diet is not without interest. The 
reported value, 96.1 per cent, approximates the value (97 per cent) 
obtained in a study of the digestibility? of butter, in which the diet 
was of an entirely different nature, namely, blancmange (containing © 
large amounts of butter), wheat biscuit, fruit, and tea or coffee with 
sugar. In a later investigation,? in which butter supplied the greater 
proportion of the fat of a diet of still different nature (hard palates 
of cattle served in the form of a meat loaf, containing butter, potato, 
crackers, and sugar), butter fat was found to be 95 per cent digested. 
The amounts of butter fat eaten per subject per day in the exper- 
iments with dasheen, with butter, and with hard palates were 128 
grams, 97 grams, and 106 grams, respectively. This agreement be- 
tween the values determined for the digestibility of butter, when 
eaten with different types of diets and under identical experimental 
conditions, furnishes additional basis for the belief that a fat includ- 
ed in a mixed diet is digested equally well regardless of the nature of 
the other constituents of the diet. 
As regards the amounts of nutrients supplied by dasheens of dif- 
ferent maturity, it will be seen that in the six experiments with the 
immature dasheen an average of 40 grams of protein, 128 grams of 
fat, and 229 grams of carbohydrates was eaten per man per day, 
while in the four experiments with the mature dasheen the average 
amounts were for all practical purposes identical, being 43 grams of 
protein, 132 grams of fat, and 234 grams of carbohydrates daily. 
The average coefficient of digestibility of the carbohydrates of im- 
mature and of mature dasheens was 97.5 per cent and 97.7 per cent, 
respectively. Apparently in so far as the thoroughness of digestion 
1U. S. Dept. Agr. Bul. 310 (1915), p. 21. 
2U. S. Dept. Agr., Jour. Agr. Research, 6 (1916), No. 17, p. 647. 
