
DIGESTION EXPERIMENTS WITH AN INFANT. I8I 
TWO DIGESTION EXPERIMENTS WITH aN, 
INFANT. 

yee VA INT 
During the winter of 1895 two digestion experiments were 
made with a child nine to ten months old, in order to ascer- 
tain the amounts of nutrients consumed and digested per day 
with their fuel values. The first study, in February, was 
of eight days; the second, in March, of nine days’ duration: 
Lhe subject.—The child, a boy, was a few days more than 
nine months old at the time of the first experiment. He was 
strong and healthy, weighing, at the beginning of the study, 
twenty-five pounds three ounces (11.43 kilos). His appetite, 
though at times variable, was, as a rule, hearty. He neither 
crept nor walked at this time. The second experiment began 
exactly one month later, at which time the child was learning 
to walk, and moved around a little by holding on to objects. 
fFood.—At the time of the first study the child lived entirely 
upon one cow’s milk. During the second study a thin oatmeal 
gruel was mixed with the milk. This gruel was made by 
thinning oatmeal after cooking till, while warm, it was 
neatly the consistency of milk, and then passing it through 
a moderately fine strainer to remove lumps and coarse par- 
ticles. 
Hach day a certain definite proportion of the milk, one cubic 
centimeter to the ounce (about one part in twenty-eight) was 
taken for analysis. These daily portions were made into a 
composite sample and preserved, by means of a very small 
amount of corrosive sublimate, until the analysis could be 
made. Hach time the oatmeal gruel was prepared one-half 
was taken for analysis. The proportions of milk and oatmeal 
as fed in the second experiment were about four to one by 
volume. 
Undigested restdue.—In order to ascertain how much of the 
nutrients of the food eaten are actually absorbed, and thus 
utilized in the body, it is necessary to determine the amount of 
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