VITAMINE CONTENT OF FOODSTUFFS 



237 



controls with no vitamine addition. Most of the investigators also 

 regarded the vitamine content of any particular diet as an unchange- 

 able constant, as a mathematical certainty. We shall see in this 

 chapter that this is not at all the case, and it will become clear how 

 the various investigators could have obtained dissimilar results with 

 the same food. 



After pointing out the possible relationship between vitamines and 

 appetite (Mendel 641), and the necessity of new legislation for food- 

 stuffs with regard to the vitamines (Ranwez 642), we shall take up 

 the description of the treatment of foodstuffs as related to the vita- 

 mine content. Here, there are the effect of heating, cooking, drying, 

 storing, sterilizing, and preserving. Here, too, we shall describe the 

 more important foodstuffs commonly used in human nutrition. It 

 will be impossible, however, to go into all of the investigations made 

 in this respect, and for this reason we shall put all of the data con- 

 sidered of importance in the form of a table at the end of this chapter, 

 showing the relative richness of the foodstuffs in the three known 

 vitamines. The first chart of this kind was made by Cooper (643) 

 in 1912-14, including but a few foodstuffs and concerning itself only 

 with the vitamine B content. A similar table was given in the 

 Report of the Medical Research Committee (I.e. 333) wherein it was 

 attempted to record quantitatively the values found. The values for 

 vitamine B are recorded, compared to 100 for wheat germ. 



In the same report, we see also the first investigation of the con- 

 tent of other vitamines. All of these values were obtained on 

 animals and apply strictly only to the species upon which the results 



