Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1914 [PAGE 249]

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•1913]

PROCEEDINGS OE THE BOARD OE TRUSTEES.

£47

of the Pellagra Commission, appointed by Governor Deneen to investigate the cause of this disease and to study the food conditions of the inmates of these institutions of this State have shown that the dietaries of the inmates of these institutions of this State are chiefly vegetable in nature and that they undoubtedly could be decidedly improved by increasing the amounts of animal foods, and by giving them more variety by furnishing fresh fruits and vegetables in season to insure the proper quantities of mineral elements. Quite aside from any contribution to the pellagra question, these researches have clearly demonstrated that the broader problems of diet in public institutions are well worthy of continued investigation by methods which are accurate and by persons who are competent. 6. The nutrition investigations upon man that have been made by this laboratory have given by far the greatest amount of exact scientific data upon the normal nutrition of man that has ever been obtained up to the present date, as the result of one continuous investigation of a group of men. The detailed study that has already been given to this vast mass of experimental data shows beyond doubt that scientific and practical results of much value to the science of nutrition and of direct benefit to the people of this State will in the end be the outcome of these researches. The results of this investigation are of fundamental importance and value to the nutrition of man in disease, and are therefore of inestimable value to sanitary and public health, as also to the sciences of medicine, physiology, nutrition and biological chemistry. 7. These investigations upon the nutrition of man have shown that nitrates are widely distributed in our common foods, especially fresh vegetables and fresh fruits, and that individuals living mainly upon vegetables and fruits ingest as much or even more nitrates than individuals consuming one-half to three-fourths of a pound of cured meats per day. It is evident from the results of these investigations that nitrates are present in a number of the organs and the fluids of the animal body. Further, it seems more than probable that nitrates in minute amounts enter into many of the processes of metabolism in the animal organism just as they do in the plant organism. ' 8. Recent statistical methods have been successfully applied for the first time to the interpretation and study of the experimental data of metabolism experiments upon man and farm animals. The application of these statistical methods to such data is of more importance, for thereby the deductions will be logical and more nearly correct and therefore of greater significance and of more influence in securing the health of the public. 9. The investigations of this laboratory have shown that there are apparently significant seasonal variations in practically all of the nutritional processes of man. For example, the average number of red cells in the blood of twenty men in November was 5,732,000 per cubic millimeter, while in July the number averaged only 4,721,000. 10. The large amount of scientific data recorded in connection with the nutrition experiments upon men furnishes important information as to the influence of the different classes of foods, i.e., vegetable and animal foods, and also as to the influence of different kinds of individual foods, i.e., meats, milk, bread, fruits, etc., upon the nutrition and the health of man: 11. Our researches have shown that in the case of normal adult men, eating an ordinary mixed diet, the average" number of fecal bacteria excreted daily is about 33x1012; the average daily bacterial dry substance about 5.34 grams; and the daily bacterial nitrogen 0.585 grams, making up 46.3 per cent of the total fecal nitrogen. There- is considerable individual variation in the average quantity of fecal bacteria even in persons taking the same diet.. The number of fecal bacteria brought to development on artificial media is a minute fraction of the total fecal bacteria microscopically visible. 12. The studies of this laboratory have shown clearly that there is marked variability in the functional activities of the same man or lower animal and of different individuals of the same species. For example, the coefficients of variability of the average quantities of the various forms of urinary nitrogen excreted in twenty-four hours by six normal men were as follows: Urea nitrogen 6.8 to 8.2; ammonia nitrogen 6.7 to 13.5; creatinin nitrogen 5.6 to 7.7; uric acid nitrogen 4.2 to 11.5. 13. About 280 individual digestion experiments with steers, 50 with swine -and 18 with sheep have been made. It is impossible to summarize in any detail at this time the results of these experiments. Among the most interesting of the results are the following: (a) The apparent coefficients of digestibility of the feeds vary inversely as the amounts of feed consumed i.e., a steer on maintenance apparently digests relatively more from a given ration than a steer- on full feed; (b) a ration containing a liberal supply of protein is more digestible than one containing a minimum amount of protein; (c) apparently the coefficients of digestibility of clover hay are increased when the proportion of concentrates—corn and oil meal— in the ration is increased. 14. A large number of experiments have been made to determine the influence of different kinds of feeding stuffs upon the growth, fattening, and nutrition of beef cattle, swine and lambs. Several publications giving the results of these lines of research are now either in press or being prepared for publication. 15. It has been demonstrated experimentally that a daily ration consisting of ground corn, blood meal, and an ample amount' of calcium phosphate, containing only 0.27 pounds of digestible protein, and yielding 3.40 therms of metabolizableenergy per 100 pounds of live weight, was not sufficient for normal nutrition of pigs. 16. It has been proven by experiments that daily rations consisting of ground corn, blood meal, and an ample amount of calcium phosphate, containing 0.68 and 8.89 pounds of digestible protein, and yielding 4.18 and 4.39 therms of metabolizable energy per 100 pounds of live weight, were sufficient for the normal nutrition of pigs.