"ROUGHAGE" DIET TESTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20958, 22 August 1931, Page 7 (Supplement)

"ROUGHAGE" DIET TESTS.

CELLULOSE CIGAR SHEATHS. Science may teach man how to eat the transparent wrappings of his cigars in ,1 diet experiment which wall begin at [ Cornell University shortly, says a New I York message. The glass-clear, paperi thin stuff will be fed to human beings : to learn whether its food value as " roughI age " is superior to that of bran. Evi- ; dence that for rats at least this new j product of the synthetic laboratories is I better than bran has been established i already in more than two years of experi- ! meat in the animal nutrition laboratory j by Dr. C. M. McCay, assistant professor j of animal nutrition. Recently there died in this laboratory | the last of the rats which ate the stuff ' and ail of which thrived upon it. They j all died of old age. That means the novel i food seemed completely good for them. I The last one was two and a-half years, ; a ripe old age for a rat. One-fifth of I his food was this wrapper material. He i ate a volume about equivalent to a well | packed bushel basket full, and it weighed | 61b. The rat weighed lib. | The wrapping material was bought | from scraps at the factory. Its only j preparation was washing in water to itsmove the glycerine, which is a harmless food. That, says Dr. McCay, is likewise all the preparation anticipated as necessary for the human feeding. Alter the I cigar wrapper has been placed under the water tap 'for a moment it is ready to eat. Whether it is good to eat only the experiments will determine, but the effect upon rats is regarded as a fairly reliable index, because among animals then metabolism is closest to that of human beings. Present roughages for human consumption Dr. McCay says, have occasional unfavourable effect upon diet, even though they mav be fine for the of persons. "The cigar wrapping is not really a far crv from the most 01 denary foodstuffs. It is made of cellulose, one of the principal compounds produced by plants and trees. In Germany cellulose is used successfully in laboratories to be converted synthetically into a fairly sweet sugar. Commercialiv it been made into food for animals rn that country. It is the basis of artificial silks in America, and of many other commercial products so numerous that chemists hare coined the phrase "the cellulose age." 2?£W KISTD OF EXPLOSION. A peculiar thing has been discovered at Oxford by Dr. H. W. Thompson. It is an explosion which does not- take place with one big bang, but, coni-inr.es to go bang every minute or so for use time, rather like a lethargic Chinese cracker. The explosion is caused by igniting a mixture of oxygen and sulphuretted hydrogen under special conditions. Even in these advanced days of the chemistry of explosives this cracker effect is n complete mystery. EFFECTS OF TEAS-GAS. To try out latest methods of gassing criminals from buildings, some American police officers tested the effects of teargas on fellow-members of the force lately. Three policemen were stationed in a building at the police training school, while tear-gas shells from a new-type gua were pat into it.. So powerful were the biting fumes from the shells that officers could not stay in the building for more than about two minutes. Tear-gas is designed to help police capture criminals without injuring them. It causes the eyes to water "badly and burn, without doing them any harm, the effects of the gas wearing off after a short while in the open air. FQWEP. FBOM THE COEhTFIELD. The maize which is spoiled by weevils is now to be made to supplement motor spirit. The maize-growers of _ South i Africa will shortly be distilling spirit from j their inferior grades of com, including ■ maize which has become damp or spoiled j by the weevil, and a central depot is to j be established at Johannesburg for this I purpose. The immense supplies of j petroleum spirit from existing oilfields, j says an English writer, have made one i forget the importance of motor fuel de- j rived from distilling corn,, grass, _ weeds. 1 nno even poppies, but motor alcohol is a I most important commodity, and is being j produced in many parts of Europe or. i quite a large scale. »