Recent Advances in Nutrition with Particular Reference to Protein Metabolism.

The three lectures of which this little volume is composed provide the busy reader with an excellent means of quickly acquainting himself with the newer understanding of the part protein plays in nutrition. The author and his collaborators have contributed importantly to this field through the development of their so-called rat-repletion method for assessing the nutritive value of individual proteins, protein hydrolysates and amino acid mixtures. The method consists of feeding animals (rats) a protein-deficient, but otherwise adequate, diet until a loss of about 25 per cent of their initial weight has occurred, then feeding the same diet with its protein component replaced by the protein to be evaluated. The latter is added at approximately a 9 per cent level. The resulting repletion is evaluated by a regaining of weight, regeneration of the plasma protein and regeneration of hemoglobin of total carcass protein and of certain antibodies. Amino acids are