THE ANTIBERIBERI VITAMINE 209 



the question as to the identity of secretin with vitamine and came 

 to the conclusion that they are not identical. Voegtlin and Myers 

 (546) also took up this question and showed that both substances 

 occur in the same fraction; they believed that both substances at 

 least resemble each other, if they are not entirely identical. The 

 results of their experiments do not seem to lead to such conclusions, 

 since they noted in the same fraction a strong secretin and a weak 

 vitamine action, whereas a vitamine preparation showed a consider- 

 able vitamine and only a slight secretin content. In this connection, 

 they showed later that vitamine fractions were contaminated by a 

 histamine-like substance. That the substances are not identical was 

 shown by the work of Cowgill (546a) and of Anrep and Drummond 

 (546b) . Bickel, Eisenhardt and Djenab (547) have demonstrated the 

 presence of a secretin in spinach, which stimulates the stomach juice 

 and pancreas secretion. The substance occurred in the arginine- 

 histidine fraction and was inactivated by heating to 140C. It 

 occurred in combination and could be liberated by hydrochloric 

 acid hydrolysis. The relationship of this substance to vitamines 

 was discussed by the authors, and their results were confirmed by 

 van Eweyk (548). 



Boruttau (549) believed that yeast, or the aleurone layer of oat 

 kernels, contains a substance which acts as a specific antidiabetic, 

 since their extracts greatly decreased the output of sugar. Uhlmann 

 (550) investigated the 'pharmacological action of orypan (extract of 

 rice polishings), as well as the extracts of various vegetables and food- 

 stuffs. The action noted was similar to, but not identical with, 

 that of choline, and pilocarpine. Uhlmann ascribed this to the 

 presence of vitamine. It is nevertheless apparent that in his cases, 

 he was dealing with histamine-like substances. A vitamine prepara- 

 tion made by us, was shown by Prof. Cushny to have no action on 

 blood pressure, respiration and the heart. No relationship to the 

 endocrine glands, aside from that already described in avian beriberi, 

 was noted. 



When an animal is fed a vitamine-free food, what happens to the 

 vitamine reserves stored up in the organs? It would be plausible to 

 assume that the animal would hold on to this valuable substance, 

 but this is not the case. Cooper (I.e. 536) showed that when feces 

 of chickens, fed on unpolished rice, or of rabbits, fed on bread and 

 cabbage, are extracted with alcohol and the concentrated extracts 



