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TIME REQUIRED TO DIGEST DIFFERENT FOODS.

The Monitor de la Salud contains in a recent number the results of some experiments lately made by E. Jessen on the time required for the digestion of certain kinds of food.  The stomach of the person on whom the experiments were made was emptied by means of a pump; 100 grammes, equal to 1,544 grains, or about 2-2/3 ounces, of meat, finely chopped and mixed with three times the quantity of water, were introduced.  The experiment was considered ended when the matter, on removal by the pump, was found to contain no muscular fibre.

It will be remembered that the gramme weighs nearly 15-1/2 grains, and the cubic centigramme is equal to 1 gramme.  The 2-2/3 ounces of meat were therefore mixed with nearly eight ounces of water, before being introduced into the stomach.

The results were as follows: 

Beef, raw, and finely chopped.  2  hours.
"   half cooked.              21/2   "
"   well cooked.              3    "
"   slightly roasted.         3    "
"   well roasted.             4    "
Mutton, raw.                    2    "
Veal.                           21/2   "
Pork.                           3    "

The digestibility of milk was examined in the same way.  The quantity used was regulated so that the nitrogen should be the same as in the 100 grammes of beef.

602 cubic centimeters, nearly sixteen ounces,
of cow’s milk, not boiled, required.        31/2 hours
602 cubic centimeters, boiled.                  4    "
602   "       "        sour.                    31/2   "
675   "       "        skimmed.                 31/2   "
656   "       "        goat’s milk, not boiled. 31/2   "

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THE ORGANIZATION AND PLAN OF THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.[7]

[Footnote 7:  Communicated to the National Academy of Sciences at the October meeting in 1884.]

By J.W.  POWELL.

A Scientific institution or bureau operating under government authority can be controlled by statute and by superior administrative authority but to a limited extent.  These operations are practically carried on by specialists, and they can be controlled only in their financial operations and in the general purposes for which investigations are made.  Their methods of investigation are their own—­originate with themselves, and are carried out by themselves.  But in relation to the scientific operations of such a government institution, there is an unofficial authority which, though not immediately felt, ultimately steps in to approve or condemn, viz., the body of scientific men of the country; and though their authority is not exercised antecedently and at every stage of the work, yet it is so potent that no national scientific institution can grow and prosper without their approval, but must sooner or later fall and perish unless sustained by their strong influence.