134 THE VITAMINES 



this could not be explained by hunger or loss of water. Karr and 

 Lewis (387) studied the amount of conjugated phenols excreted. The 

 figures obtained were normal and hence their conclusion, that in 

 scorbutic guinea pigs there is an abnormal bacterial decomposition 

 in the intestine, seems unjustified. According to McCollum and 

 Parsons (387a), the prairie dog behaves not like the guinea pig but 

 like the rat, in its vitamine C requirements. 



Rabbits 



Rabbits have been infrequently used in the solution of some of the 

 vitamine problems. The reason for this is that these animals are 

 much less affected by a lack of vitamines, which we have personally 

 demonstrated (I.e. 368). We found that a rabbit may live on oats 

 alone for more than three months, exhibiting individual variations in 

 their behavior. The explanation for this may be found in a paper 

 by Portier and Random (I.e. 217). In this investigation, rabbits 

 were fed on cabbage and carrots, autoclaved for one hour at 125C. 

 The animals usually died after 11 to 17 days, with symptoms of an 

 avitaminosis. When the experiments were repeated with a larger 

 animal, these results could no longer be obtained; the animal was 

 observed for three months during which time it gained weight. This 

 observation found no explanation, till it was noted one day, that the 

 animal was eating the feces. Two series of experiments were then 

 arranged, in one of which the animals received, in addition to the 

 diet, the feces of the other, kept also on the de-vitaminized food. The 

 animals receiving feces were in good health after 100 days and gained 

 weight. The investigators explained this result by saying that with 

 the feces, bacteria were ingested which prepared vitamine for the 

 animal by symbiosis. It must nevertheless not be forgotten, that 

 feces may contain vitamine, as we shall see later on. Nevertheless, 

 the observation of Portier and Randoin was of greatest interest. 



Schaumann (I.e. 2) thought that he had produced beriberi in 

 rabbits, fed on corn, which could be cured by yeast or Katjang-idjoe 

 beans. Since corn is very rich in vitamine B, this condition was 

 evidently confused with scurvy. Abderhalden and Lampe" (I.e. 25) 

 have observed paresis in a rabbit fed with rice, but beriberi has never 

 been actually demonstrated in rabbits. On the other hand, scurvy 

 in rabbits has been described by Hoist and Frolich (I.e. 36), identical 

 with scurvy in guinea pigs. In opposition to this, Morgen and 



