The proper amount of fat which is required in the diet during growth has not been and cannot be established since the exact r\l=o^\leof fat has not yet been determined. Until recently it has been generally supposed that fat did not play any specific part in nutrition, but like carbohydrate, served as a source of energy and as a sparer of protein.
No extended review of the literature on the chemistry of woman's milk will be attempted in this paper. The reader is referred for this to a r\l=e' \sum\l=e' \ by Nothmann1 in 1912 and another by Talbot2 in 1914. Quite large series of analyses have been made by many observers in which only a determination of the organic constituents and the total ash of milk was aimed at. Among the most important publications are those of Leeds,3 Meigs4 and Adriance5 in this country and those of Pfeiffer6 and Schlossman7 in Germany.The fat and protein content of woman's milk are now pretty definitely agreed on. The methods followed by many chemists in the sugar determination, as we shall see later, are open to criticism; and even in the total ash estimation, errors have been made owing to faulty methods.Considering how much work has been done on the chemistry of woman's milk, it is surprising that so few investigators have concerned themselves with the composition of the ash. With the exception of Harrington and Kinnicutt8 who analyzed a single large composite sample, almost nothing has been published in this country and very little abroad on this subject. It is true that both here and abroad isolated analyses have been reported, but they have been mainly in connection with metabolism experiments and have frequently been From the laboratories of the Babies' Hospital
In two cases of infantilism there was poor absorption from the intestines of nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium.
The excretion of these elements in the urine was low. The excretion of calcium in the urine was so small as to be negligible.
The excretion of calcium into the intestines was increased.
The complete balance experiments showed that while other elements were retained, calcium was lost.
Analyses of the principal known bases and acids of the feces in cases of infantilism in which excessive amounts of calcium are being lost, and comparison with cases which are normal in this respect, show that the fats, fatty acids, and volatile acids are not high, and lead to the conclusion that the loss of calcium is not secondary to the presence of large quantities of phosphates, fatty acids, or volatile acids.
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